Ashley and Gary: Through Hoenn
by UltimateLoveStorys
Summary: What if Ash had been Ashley? And what if, after her defeat in the Johto Silver Confrence she convinces Gary to travel with her in the Hoenn Region? Well this is my idea of what would happen! FemAsh/Gary slight May/Drew T because I'm paranoid slight OOCness
1. Chapter 1

Ashley Ketchum was now traveling alone, on her way home to Pallet Town after her defeat in the Johto League Silver Conference. She had conflicted feelings at the moment, she was slightly depressed about the fact that she wouldn't be traveling with her two best friends, Misty and Brock, anymore. It hurt her to think that she wouldn't see the two for a while, but she was also happy and determined to start a new journey, and meet new people. She just… had no idea where to go next.

Suddenly, houses came into view as she reached the top of the hill she had been climbing, and she let out a scream of joy.

"Pikachu! Look, we're home!" She almost squealed with joy at seeing the place she had grown up in.

"Pika!" her faithful companion squeaked excitedly , and with that, the 14 year old (**A/N im not sure if that's her age but it is in my story :D) **sprinted down the hill, her waist long, spiky black hair flying behind her, and a little yellow mouse holding desperately onto her shoulder.

She ran all they way until she reached her home, and knocked on the door, wanting to surprise her mom. After a couple seconds, the door opened to reveal her mother.

Ashley didn't even have time to think before she was enveloped in a bone crushing hug, with her mother crying into her shoulder.

"Oh Ashley! You're finally home! I've missed you so much darling!"

Ashley smiled and hugged her mom just as tight "I missed you too mom, its great to be home!"

"Oh Ash, you must be so tired, lets get you to bed, its getting dark anyway!" she let her mother drag her to her room, smiling slightly as she laid down to sleep. It really was great to be home.

The next morning she got up and dressed in her normal black tank top with a pokeball in the middle, red, short sleeve jacket, and jean shorts. Along with her hat of course! As she walked down the stairs, she also slipped on her necklace that she had worn since Gary had given her the other half of that pokeball, she had put it onto a chain and wore it ever since.

Ashley sat down at the table just as her mom put breakfast on the table and started to eat, scratching pikachu behind his ears.

"Oh, Ashley, sweetie, I forgot to mention, Gary got into town a few days ago-" Ashley's eyes instantly lit up.

"What? Gary's here too? Bye mom I'll be back soon!" and with that she sprinted out the door, leaving her breakfast, pikachu, and her mom behind, running to Prof. Oak's lab. She opened the door to see Tracy and Prof. Oak.

"Hey guys! Good to see ya, where's Gary?" Prof. Oak chuckled at her eagerness

"He actually just left, to go on a new journey"

"What? He left already? Where to?"

"We're not entirely sure, he just left saying that he needed to keep moving. He probably wants to start fresh, that's why he left all of his pokemon here, well except for Blastoise"

She ran out the door to go find him, "I swear! The nerve of that boy! Leaving without even waiting for me to say goodbye!"

She ran to the top of the hill and saw his spiky brunette hair, "Gary! Hey, Gare Bear! Wait up you big idiot!" he stopped and turned as she ran up and tackled him in a hug. He just chuckled and hugged her back.

"Hey there Ashy what's up? Come to say goodbye?" he asked as he pulled back with a small smirk on his face.

"Of course! You can't say you didn't expect me to say goodbye! Anyway where are you even heading?"

"You know, I'm not even sure, but I gotta keep moving. I wanna learn all about new kinds of pokemon"

"Well… I guess I cant stop you, but here," she lifted up her necklace and broke it in half, giving one piece to Gary and stringing the other back onto the chain. He took it and smiled at her.

"Thanks Ashy!" he pulled her into another hug "I think I might miss you most of all you know" he said matter of factly and she blushed slightly, hiding her face in his shoulder.

"I'm gonna miss you too, Gare Bear" he pulled away and scowled playfully at the nickname before he let out a gasp, looking into the sky. She followed his gaze and gasped as well. "It's Ho-oh!"

"I wonder where it's headed…" Gary said in awe. And she came to a couple realizations at that one moment.

"It's headed to Hoenn… I think that's where I want to go now. But, Gary, will you go with me? Will you travel to Hoenn with me, please?" she looked at him, silently praying that he would say yes and travel with her. He then turned away from the legendary pokemon and smiled widely at her.

"Sure Ash! I think that'll be great! We should really go and stay another day in Pallet to get ready for the trip though, so let's head back" She smiled so wide that her cheeks hurt but she didn't care.

Ashley tackled Gary to the ground in a hug and he laughed loudly as she rambled "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Oh, we'll have so much fun!" they were still laying on the ground and Gary decided he needed to get her off. He smirked a little and started to tickle the girl's sides, laughing as she squealed at tried to get away.

Ash got up and started to run down the hill to the town with Gary sprinting after her.

The two ran to Prof. Oak's lab first, because Ashley wanted to give all her pokemon besides pikachu to him and start fresh just as Gary had done.

"Professor Oak! I'm back, and guess who I brought!" Ashley ran through the doors with Gary walking behind her.

"Oh, hello Gary! I see Ashley talked you into staying longer?" he questioned with a slight smile.

"Well I'm the one that decided we should head back, but we're leaving tomorrow. I've decided to start traveling with Ash instead of alone,"

"Well that's wonderful! Now where will you be traveling?" this is where Ashley decided to step in.

"Well, we decided that we want to go to the Hoenn Region. I also want to leave all my pokemon except for pikachu with you, so I can start fresh, just like when I left Pallet town at the beginning of my journey," she then looked at Gary "I was thinking that we should go to Littleroot Town first and meet Prof. Birch if that's okay with you"

"Yeah, that's fine, I could probably learn a thing or two from him anyway! He is famous for his pokemon feildwork, so that's a great idea!"

Just then Mrs. Ketchum burst through the door holding a couple things in her hands and pikachu on her shoulder.

"Ashy! I got you some new clothes and a new backpack! I figured that you would want to go to Hoenn, and that you would drag Gary with you," she giggled cheerfully at her daughter " so I took the liberty to buy you both a ticket to the ferry leaving to the Hoenn region from Seaform Island!"

"Wow, thanks mom! I love you so much!" she exclaimed as she hugged her mother tightly.

"Yeah, thanks so much Mrs. Ketchum!"

"Well anyway Ashley, don't forget to brush your teeth and change your undergarments!" her mother said and Ashley scowled

"Mother!" she screeched, an embarrassed flush appearing on her cheeks as Gary snickered.

"Sorry sweetie!" Prof. Oak walked up at that moment holding two pokedex's handing one to Gary and the other to Ashley.

"I decided to go ahead and update your pokedex's with information on pokemon in the Hoenn region for you two," he said smiling.

"Wow thanks!"

"Yeah, thank you Grandpa!"

"You're welcome, kids. Now, you should go and pack for the journey ahead of you, Ashley. Gary has already packed but you haven't"

"Sure thing Professor!" she then ran out the door, grabbing pikachu from her mom on her way out.

_The next morning_

Ashley woke up and pulled on her new outfit. It was an emerald green tank top with a black vest that she left unbuttoned, some dark jean shorts, and a new hat which was white and black with a green outline of the top half of a pokeball. All in all she was very happy with her mothers skill at picking her outfits.

She pulled on her new black and white sneakers, and walked out the door remembering to grab her backpack that followed her new color scheme of black, white and green. She ran to Oak's house, pulling on her half pokeball necklace as she went.

Gary walked out as she was about to knock on the door and smirked at her as usual "Hey there Ashy, you ready to go or what?"

"Aw, c'mon Gare Bear, you know I'm always ready for a new adventure!"

"Yeah, I'm just teasing-"

"You're always teasing"

"Anyway, lets go say bye to everyone,"

"Sure, lets go! Ooooh, I can't wait to see all those Hoenn pokemon!" she enthusiastically ran to the lab where everyone was waiting to say goodbye.

Mrs. Ketchum quickly spotted them coming and alerted everyone to start cheering, she then wrapped her daughter in a hug. "Oh, Ash, I'm going to miss you so much!"

"I'll miss you too mom," she whispered to her mother, not daring to let her voice get any louder in case the tears started. She never liked to leave her mom for so long, but she loved traveling and pokemon too much to let the opportunities pass her by.

"Pika! Pikachu!" her faithful companion squeaked

"You too Pikachu! You know I'll miss you!" her mother giggled quietly and pet the electric mouse

"Pikaa!"

Ashely looked over to see Gary talking to Prof. Oak and Tracey and walked over. She looked at Tracey very seriously.

"Take good care of my pokemon okay? Bayleaf will probably be very sad for a little while, so please be good to her. Make sure you aren't spoiling any of them either okay?" She needed to get her point across that the pokemon were now to be one of his main priorities.

"Don't you worry, Ashley, I'll take great care of them. Yours too Gary," he said seriously and nodded to Gary.

"Thank you," she hugged him and walked over to Gary. "We should probably get going now, so we get to the ferry by nightfall"

"Yeah, good idea, bye grandpa!"

"Goodbye Professor!"

"Goodbye kids, I hope to see you soon!"

Before they walked off Ashley heard a sound that made her skin crawl.

_Gary's Cheerleaders_

"Gary, Gary, He's our man! He'll go places no one can!" Ashley gave Gary a scathing look and he just smirked and shrugged. She turned to look at the girls who were cheering.

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" she then turned on her heel, leaving behind the shocked girls and continued walking as if nothing had happened.

Gary just kept a smirk on his face.

**A/N Hope you liked it! And yes this will be Palletshipping if anyone was wondering. I'm not sure when they'll get together but they will only be really good friends at first.**


	2. Chapter 2

Ashley was laying in the sun with Pikachu next to her on the ferry to Hoenn. Gary was underwater with Blastoise, trying to see how long he could hold his breath.

"I can't wait to get to Hoenn, Pikachu! It'll be so fun, and I bet we'll get to see so many new pokemon and challenge bunches of trainers. We won't be alone either! We have Gare Bear and Blastoise with us. First thing first though, we've gotta get to Littleroot and meet Prof. Birch like we promised Harrison, and Gary will get to learn something from him!"

"Pikachu!"

Then Ashley saw the Captain walking by, "Excuse me captain, could you tell me when we're going to dock in Littleroot Town, please?

"Sure, if everything goes on schedule, we should get there by tomorrow night,"

"That's great! Thank you! I'm Ashley by the way"

"Say, is this your first trip to the Hoenn region, Ashley?"

"Yeah" Ashley smiled happily

"It must get pretty lonely traveling all by yourself like that!"

"Oh I'm not alone! I've got my buddy Pikachu here! An-" she didn't finish what she was going to say as she and Pikachu got hit with a blast of freezing water, she shrieked loudly and stood up quickly as she heard uncontrollable laughter and looked over to see Gary on the ground, laughing and Blastoise next to him trying to look innocent, "GARY OAK! THAT WAS FREEZING, YOU MORON! As I was saying Captain, I'm also traveling with that idiot over there" she pointed to the brunette whose laughter had started to subside and he greeted the Captain.

"Nice to meet you Sir! I'm Gary" he said, laughter still oozing from his every word as he stuck out his hand

"Nice to meet you Gary, call me Captain" he shook the hand Gary had stuck out "Nice to meet you too, Ashley" he smiled and walked away.

Ashley turned to glare at Gary, who had an innocent look on his face and stated "Gare Bear, you're gonna be the death of me you know," he just smiled widely at her and she looked at him suspiciously.

"I know, and I take pride in every moment of it Ashy! Hmm… you know, I really should come up with something better than Ashy, it doesn't bug you enough…." she got a horrified look at the thought of a new nickname meant to annoy her.

"No, no Gary please!" she pleaded with him and got the cutest look on her face that she could. She could have sworn that she saw a pinkness show up in his cheeks but brushed it off, _no time for fooling yourself_ she scolded in her mind.

"Sorry Ashy, but considering my nickname is _Gare Bear_," he said the nickname like it was something horrible and she smirked at him, "I think you deserve something more embarrassing and annoying"

Ashley just pouted, crossing her arms like a 5 year old and sticking out her bottom lip. Gary then got an idea and stepped very close to the dark haired girl.

Blastoise and Pikachu, who had silently been watching the whole exchange, looked at each other, nodded, and walked over to the pool, away from their crazy trainers.

Ashley had frozen on the spot and dropped her arms as she and Gary had a silent staring contest. He was smirking at her with mischief dancing in his eyes and she knew she had a blush coating her cheeks. Suddenly, he bent down and threw her over his shoulder. She shrieked at the sudden movement and started pounding on his back, she would've kicked too if it wasn't for the fact that he held her legs tightly to his chest.

"Gary Oak, you let me down this instant!" she yelled at him furiously.

"Alright!" he then pulled her off his shoulder and dropped her into the pool.

Ashley spluttered as she resurfaced, spitting out the water that had entered her mouth, "GARY!"

He just laughed loudly as he ran away.

They laid down on two mats next to each other when nightfall came, Pikachu sleeping next to her, and a pokeball sitting next to him. He looked at her and started to speak.

"Isn't it weird? Last time, we set out on separate journeys, and we were complete rivals in everything, not taking the time to even become friends."

"But now," she spoke up "We're on a new journey, with new goals. We'll always be rivals, but now, I'd like to think of us as best friends, don't you?"

He smiled softly at her "Yeah, best friends, sticking together till the end! Hey, Ashy?"

"Yes, Gare Bear?" she teased with a smile and he scowled lightly at her, but pulled something out of his bag.

"Do you think you could get my half on a necklace like yours?" he held up his half of the pokeball they both had and she smiled brightly.

"Of course! I have an extra chain, so I'll do it tomorrow! Gary?"

"Yeah, Ash?"

"Thank you, for coming with me to Hoenn. You don't know how much it means that you agreed to travel with me, and that you're my best friend,"

"No, Ash, I should really be thanking you. 'Cause if you hadn't stopped me up on the hill, I would've been alone right now, and that would be just plain boring. Who else would I annoy? But anyway, it means a lot to me too, to have you as a best friend,"

Ashley's eyes had gotten slightly glassy, the way he said it had made her feel special and she leaned over to hug him, he hugged her back tightly, "Goodnight Gary"

"Goodnight Ashy"

Then they both laid down and fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, the door to the room where the passengers were asleep slowly creaked open as two robotic hands crept into the room. The hands snaked over to the spot where the two friends were sleeping and got to work, the first one grabbed a hold of the red and white ball next to the boy and the next snatched up the little yellow mouse that had been sleeping next to the girl, he instantly woke up as he was grabbed.

"Pika!"

The girl started to wake up in a daze at the hands started to retreat with their prizes

"Pikachu?" she opened her eyes groggily and spotted the two hands sneaking off with her Pikachu and a pokeball "Pikachu! Gary wake up!" she shook the boy awake and ran after the robot thieves, but quickly lost them. Gary then rushed out of the room looking panicked.

"Blastoise's pokeball is gone! Where's Pikachu? What's going on?"

"Oh God, that was Blastoise's pokeball? Two robotic hands just came in and took it and Pikachu too! We have to go find them, who knows where they're being taken!"

Gary nodded and grabbed her arm as they ran in the direction that the hands had gone. Turning the corner they almost bumped into the Captain.

"Whoa, kids, where are you headed at this time of night?" Ashley spoke up in her hysterics

"Sir, my Pikachu and Gary's Blastoise, someone got these robotice hands in our room and took them! We don't know where they are now! Please, sir, help us!"

"What! Did you see which way they went?"

"Well they went this way but it think they're too far now"

"Alright then kids, follow me!" he then rushed down the hall with the two teens following behind him. He stopped at a computer like device. "With this I can see where any stowaways are on the ship" he explained and turned his attention the screen. "Ah ha! They are on the lower deck in the food storage room! Follow me,"

And with that, they were running again.

They burst in and heard the farmiliar voice of a certain meowth "So why don't you just sit back and enjoy this peaceful cruise?"

This comment, apparently made Gary pretty mad because he spat out "There's nothing _peaceful_ about it!" the look on his face actually scared her a bit, but then she spotted two containers, one with a pokeball and the other with pikachu. She knew she had adapted a similar look to his.

The Captain spoke up, "You have some nerve stealing these kids pokemon like that! Who do you lowlifes think you are!" his voice was stern and commanding, with a hint of anger to it.

Jessie chuckled and opened her mouth, Ashley groaned as she realized what the woman was about to do.

"Prepare for trouble on land, and sea" James spoke up next

"Make it double, the troubles on me!"

"to protect the world from devastation"

"to unite all peoples within our nation!"

"to denounce the evils of truth and love,"

"to extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket rides the waves at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight, fight, fight"

"Meowth! That's right!"

"Wobbuffet!"

The Captain look downright confused, Gary looked annoyed and Ashley was just exasperated.

"Seriously! Do you ever give it a rest? I should have known it was you!" Gary glanced at the two contaiers holding their pokemon and looked at Team Rocket dangerously.

"Give me back those pokemon, NOW!" Ashley took a step back and looked at him warily

"Never! You little twerps, we will do this without mistakes, now leave!"

"You're wrong, stealing these pokemon was the biggest mistake you could've made! Go Machoke!" the Captain call upon the Machoke that was always with him.

"Ma! Machoke!" it called and readied itself for battle

"Alright if that's how you want to play it, go Arbok!"

"You too Wheezing!"

"Arbok use poison sting!"

"Dodge it!"

"Wheezing, use smoke screen!" Ashley looked worried

"It cant see!"

"Now tackle!"

"Ma!" the Machoke was rammed into a tank of water.

"Now finish with acid, Arbok!" the Machoke quickly dodged as the acid hit the water storage tank behind it, causing water to start spilling everywhere.

Ashley stumble back into Gary, "Not good, not good!" she panicked and Gary grabbed a hold of her when the water overtook everyone and swept them out of the room.

Ashley and Gary held onto each other tightly and kicked to the surface, they saw the captain get out as they were swept away and knew he would do something. They took one last breath as the water filled to the ceiling and dove under. The two teens looked ahead of them and saw team Rocket swimming swiftly to some stairs, Pikachu and Bastoise still clutched in their arms. Swimming after them, they reached the stairs and went up after them.

They sprinted across the deck after the thieves who were escaping one a rope, "Oh no you don't!" Ashley screamed and nodded to Gary, who understood immediately and ran ahead of her jumping off the railing and holding tightly to Wobbuffet, Ashley quickly followed, grabbing a hold of his waist. Gary spoke up.

"You give them back now! Give me back Pikachu and Blastoise!" Jessie looked at him warily and spoke to the blue pokemon.

"Wobbuffet, if you are a loyal pokemon, you will let go!" she screeched obnoxiously.

Ashley looked ahead and screamed! "BIG METAL WALL! BRACE YOURSE-" They slammed into the wall and fell to the ground, Gary and Ashley landing on a pile of wooden boxes and Team Rocket and meowth with the pokemon landing on two different trucks, driving away. The pokemon and Meowth turning one way and Team Rocket turning the other, they seemed to be yelling at each other.

"NO! Pikachu! Hey wait… when did we get to a dock?" Gary walked over to her and helped her out of the box she'd been stuck in.

"The Captain most likely stopped her to get repairs, but c'mon lets go get our pokemon" she nodded quickly and ran after him when an officer Jenny appeared next to him

"What's going on kids?" she looked at their worried faces and Ashley spoke up.

"Officer Jenny! Team Rocket stole my Pikachu and my friends Blastoise, please you have to help us!" Officer Jenny looked shocked and angry

"They did what? Hop on kids, we'll follow them!" they did as she said and pointed her in the direction the truck had gone. Just then the Captain stuck his head out of a window on the ship and shouted to them

"Be back by nightfall, kids! Or we'll have to leave without you!"

"We will Sir!" and wit that they were off, following Officer Jenny's Pidgeot

They hopped off the motorcycle as they reached where Team rockets balloon had fallen, Ashley ran to Pikachu, who had Blastoise's ball in his mouth and was wrapped in a metal brace.

"Pikachu! You're okay!" she took the ball from his mouth and held him in her arms while walking to Gary, happily handing him the ball, he smiled gratefully and threw the ball

"Go, Blastoise!"

"Blast!"

"You little Twerps! Lets see how you handle our super magnet!" James then turned on the magnet and pikachu started to be pulled towards it, "NO! I've got you Pikachu, don't worry!" she held fast to the poor little mouse and they were slowly pulled closer. Gary looked at her worriedly.

"Ashley, be careful!" Team rocket looked annoyed that she hadn't let go yet

"Fine then! We'll just have to use full power!" James then turned up the power on the magnet and things started flying around the alley, just then, a metal barrel lifted off the ground, revealing several Haunter, and shot towards Ashley, hitting her in the back of the head causing her to drop pikachu and get knocked out cold.

"ASHLEY!" Gary sprinted over to the fallen girl and panicked "No… no, no, no!" he checked her pulse and was relieved to find that she still had one. He gently laid her down and turned to the scene furiously, if looks could kill, Team Rocket would be dead 50 times over. He then saw that pikachu was attached to the gigantic magnet and turned to Blastoise.

"Blastoise, use bite on Pikachu's brace!"

"Blast!" he did so and carried pikachu back over near Gary.

"Whaaaa! That brace cost a fortune you twerp! Well if you wanna play it that way!" they jumped out from behind the balloon basket, but before they could do anything, the Haunter's floated in front of everyone and used nightshade one the magnet. Gary, realizing what was going to happen, yelled out orders

"Blastoise, use withdraw and bring Pikachu with you! Officer Jenny, get down!" then he dove to the ground, covering the unconscious girls body with his own as the magnet exploded.

"Team Rocket's blasting of again!" was heard as the team disappeared into the distance. Everyone got up and walked over to Gary and Ashley, who was slowly regaining consciousness.

"I swear, Ashley, you must have some kind of death wish." he chuckled at her and she smiled weakly

"Pikachu's okay?" she asked and the electric mouse bounded over to her.

"Pika! Pikachu!"

"Hey Pikachu, I'm so happy you're alright" Gary frowned at how weak her voice sounded and scooped her up bridal style before turning to Officer Jenny

"Can we get her to a Pokemon Center to check if she's okay? I think she might have a concussion," for some unknown reason, Ashley started giggling. This scared Gary a lot… "Ashley… is there a reason you're giggling like a madman" she just giggled more and said in a teasing voice

"Awww, does widdle Gare Bear care about Ashwey?" he looked at her as if she were completely insane (which she could have been in the first place) and turned to Officer Jenny

"Yeah… lets get to that Pokemon Center now…." She just nodded, looking warily at the girl in his arms and motioned for him to get on the motorcycle and they drove to the Pokemon Center

Gary was currently carrying Ashley in his arms and Pikachu on his shoulder as they walked to their room on the Ferry. He had refused to let her walk because he didn't trust her to walk yet after taking such a blow to the head.

Ashley was _very_ annoyed with this.

"Gary Oak, you better put me down this instant! I can walk perfectly fine, thank you very much!" she had been going on like this the whole way and Gary decided to humor her this time.

"Fine, lets see you walk _Ashy_" he then set her down.

"Sure thing, _Gare Bear_" he watched in amusement as she wobbled where she stood, obviously dizzy, and took a few shaky steps before stumbling and falling. Gary had just enough time to catch her and scoop her back into his arms

"You are really light, you know that Ashykinz?" he said nonchalantly and she looked at him incredulously

"_Ashykinz? _Why do you find the need to make a new nickname for me now?"

"Oh I thought of it a while ago but never got to use it, there's also Ley-Ley" she glared dangerously at him

"I know where you sleep" she said this very seriously, but cracked a second after she said it, laughing uncontrollably and Gary couldn't help but join in.

"I swear, you are the most insane person I've ever met, oh look! We're here," he pushed open the door and walked in, setting her on her mat and placing the sleeping Pikachu next to her. She pet the little electric mouse

"You had a long day buddy, you deserve a nice long rest" she said softly, looking fondly at her faithful companion. Gary laid down on him mat and spoke.

"You did too you know, and even though Nurse Joy said you don't have a concussion, you still need a lot of rest, you took a real hard blow to the head you know. I was really worried about you," he stated with a scolding tone and she smiled.

"Who knew, Gary Oak, my extremely arrogant jerk of a rival, would ever be so worried about my health," she teased him lightly.

"Hey, I do care you know!" he defended himself, " and even though I'm still your rival in some ways, doesn't mean I don't care. You _are_ my best friend you know, I thought we established this last night"

"Yeah, yeah, and we did, it's weird seeing you care about me so much sometimes though… I dunno I guess I'm just still getting used to the caring you. Just don't change too much! I think I would start missing the arrogant jerk that was my rival! Wow, that comment is really going to comeback and bite me isn't it.," she stated as she saw his smirk.

"Oh yeah, the chances are almost 100%" she just groaned "Now get to sleep, we dock in Hoenn tomorrow!"

And on that note, they went to sleep.

Ashley ran out onto the deck with Gary one step behind her, they were laughing when Ashley screamed and pointed ahead of them "Look Gary! We're here! We made it to the Hoenn Region!" she pointed excitedly to the city they were sailing towards

"Well its about time! I was starting to think we'd never get here!"

Then a large flock of a pokemon that looked like seagulls and pelican's flew overhead and the two friends smiled widely at the sight of a new pokemon

"That is so cool! Lets go wake up Pikachu and get Blastoise out so they can see it too!" Ashley said joyously as she ran back to their room to wake her electric mouse.

When she got there the smile dropped from her face as she saw the state her pokemon was in, he was sweating and twitching in his sleep, looking her sick. "Oh no… Pikachu are you okay buddy?" she reached out to touch him only to get zapped "Pikachu! You're burning up, you must have a bad fever! You stay here buddy, I'll get Gary"

She sprinted out of the room to find Gary and Blastoise on the deck waiting for her, "Gary, you've gotta help, Pikachu is really sick!" he nodded and returned Blastoise, running after her.

**A/N oooooh! A cliffy! Haha, I hope you liked it! If you remember this episode and the one after, you know what's wrong with poor Pikachu.**

**I would also like to give shoutout to my best friend Mysocksarerockin101 for the help she's given me on this story already!**


	3. Chapter 3

Ashley was very worried. Pikachu was wrapped tightly in her arms as she and Gary ran off the ferry, he wasn't doing good at all and the two friends were very worried.

"Gary, are you sure you don't know what's wrong?" her voice was teetering in between panic and worry. Gary wracked his brain for answers when it came to him.

"Oh no… Ashley we need to get to a Pokemon Center NOW!" this only freaked her out more and he mentally smacked himself.

"What? Why? Gary, what's wrong with him!" Now she had become hysterical and Gary would have slapped himself for being so stupid if the situation wasn't so serious.

"Calm down, he'll be fine if we can get him to the Pokemon Center okay? When he was strapped to that magnet, his electricity was trapped inside of him, and now its trying to force its way out, but Ashley, if we don't get it out of him, there's a chance that… well Pikachu will explode" Tears formed in her eyes and he cursed under his breath "Don't worry! I promise that it'll be okay! Now run faster!"

Finally, they found a person and Ashley spoke to him frantically "Excuse me sir, but could you tell us where the Pokemon Center is?"

"I'm sorry, but this town doesn't have a Pokemon Center" and then he walked away. Gary's face fell and he looked at Ashley who had frozen on the spot.

"No Pokemon Center… There's no Pokemon Center" she whispered almost brokenly and a single tear fell from her eye and a thought came to Gary.

"Well if there isn't a Pokemon Center then we'll call Prof. Birch" He stated determinedly

Ashley and Gary were waiting anxiously when a car screeched to a stop in front of them and the man inside asked "Are you Gary Oak and Ashley Ketchum?"

"Yes sir"

"Alright, I'm Prof. Birch! Get in and we can take care of the electrical buildup in your pikachu!"

They climbed into the car, Gary taking the back seat and Ashley riding shotgun, looking at Pikachu with worry written all over her face.

"How long ago was your Pikachu strapped to the magnet?" Prof. Birch asked seriously

"It was only last night Prof."

"Hmm" was his only reply.

A couple minutes later, they screeched to a stop in front of a lab and sprinted inside.

"Ashley, I want you to put Pikachu on this table" he told her and she quickly did as he said, watching sadly as Pikachu twitched in pain.

The Professor attached some kind of device to the electric pouches on Pikachu's cheeks and told his assistant to turn on the machine and it was quickly filled with electricity, exploding when it was overloaded

"Pika! Pii, picachu!" Pikachu jumped out the window, panicking and Ashley quickly followed behind, Gary and the Professor following her.

"Do either of you have any pokemon strong against electric types?"

"No, Sir! We left with only Pikachu and my Blastoise! And Blastoise is weak to electric types!"

"Well it'll have to do! Call it out! I'll go and get mine, you run after Ashley!" Gary nodded and pulled out a pokeball

"Go Blastoise!" the giant pokemon appeared in a beam out red light "Buddy, we need to get Pikachu okay? He's very sick and delusional so be careful!"

"Blast! Blastoise!" the two ran after Ashley as the professor went to get his pokemon.

"Ashley! Wait up!" Gary ran up to the worried teen, the professor catching up to them too

"What? We have to find Pikachu now!" Prof. Birch decided to speak up.

"Ashley, Pikachu's electrical buildup is too high! If we disturb it too much we could cause a massive explosion!"

"WHAT!" she stumbled back and Gary grabbed her shoulders

"Calm down! We'll find him Ashley!" she slowly nodded at him.

"Well, kids, the best way to find him is to split up! Gary, you go with Ashley since you have a pokemon,"

"Alright, Ashley lets go!" then they ran the opposite way as the Professor.

"Pikachu! Where are you buddy?"

"Pikachu!"

"Blast! Blastoise Blast!"

"Pikachu!"

"Pikaa" they suddenly heard a familiar squeak and turned in that direction, seeing a mass of yellow fur and heading to it cautiously

"Pikachu? Stay there buddy, it'll all be okay!" Ashley reached down to pick him up when he suddenly him them all with a large thunderbolt, knocking them to the ground and knocking Blastoise out.

"Ah! Blastoise return!"

Meanwhile, Ashley was standing next to pikachu, who was releasing more and more electricity as Professor Birch and some brunette girl ran over to them.

"Ashley get back! Pikachu could explode at any moment!

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that! I have to help him!" just then Pikachu shot up and ran, Ashley followed behind, only to see him run straight off the side of a cliff.

"NO! PIKACHU!" she then sprinted to the Cliffside and dove off after him without a second thought.

"ASHLEY! WHY MUST YOU HAVE SOME KIND OF DEATH WISH?" Gary screamed as he ran and looked over the side, to see the girl holding onto a branch with one arm and Pikachu with the other. She looked up at him with a half smile

"Oh, you know I wouldn't be me if I didn't! Now do you think you could help me out of this mess?" she asked with a tone that suggested nothing serious was happening

"You got it" he turned around to see Prof. Birch with a rope in his hands and he and the girl grabbed a hold of it to help pull her up "Grab on Ashy!" they started to pull her up when she yelled out in pain as Pikachu bit her arm

"Pikachu…" she said sadly and suddenly, Pikachu snapped out of his confusion and looked around, "I promise buddy, you'll be okay," and the they started to pull again and Ashley finally climbed over the edge and sat on the ground. "Alright, buddy. Let's get you back to Prof. Birch's lab so we can get you all better, okay?" Pikachu looked guilty

"Caaa!" he squeaked and licked the spot he had bitten

"It's alright buddy, I know you didn't mean it!" she scratched his head with a smile that wiped away when a robot that looked like a giant battery appeared and they all heard the voices of Team Rocket's theme song.

Once it was over the Professor and the brunette girl looked confused

"Team Rocket? I've never heard of you…"

"Well good for you! Do you want a medal?" Jessie yelled at him, insulted and he stayed quiet.

"Prof. those are the ones who did this to Pikachu, they're always up to no good!"

The three of them jumped inside of their machine and Pikachu tried to attack them.

"Don't do anything Pikachu! Please!" just then they heard Meowth's voice from the machine

"If that's how you wanna play then okay!" and a metal clasp shot out and grabbed him, two other parts of the robot came and attached to his cheeks.

They watched in wonder as the machine started to absorb Pikachu's electricity filling the yellow meter on the robot to the very top

"Professor, is this good or bad?" Gary asked

"This could be very good! Pikachu's output is incredible! The machine back at the lab wouldn't have done the job!"

Suddenly, the electricity stopped and Pikachu shouted its name joyfully before letting out a massive thunderbolt, part of it hitting a bike that was leaning on one of the trees, to which the brunette yelled

"My bike!" Gary snickered a little at her misfortune.

As the thunderbolt subsided, the robot battery exploded, expelling Team Rocket into the distance and dropping pikachu, who stood firm for a couple second before falling unconscious.

"Pikachu!" Ashley ran forward, pulling the little mouse into her arms arm walking back to the group of people "Can we get back to the lab now?"

Once back in the lab, Pikachu was hooked up to a new machine to check his electricity levels

"Sir, the Pikachu's electricity level is back to normal" The assistant told Prof. Birch and Ashley sighed, relieved why Gary smiled and ruffled her hair

"Told you he would be okay, _Ashykinz_" he teased her and she glared playfully

"Yes, I'm so very sorry that I didn't trust your almighty wisdom, _Gare Bear_" She teased him right back and Prof. Birch spoke up

"Well Ashley, a good nights sleep should do the trick for Pikachu"

"That's great! Do you mind if we stay the night? It's starting to get dark"

"Not at all!" suddenly they heard a slight scream and turned to see the brunette girl catch a vase of flowers and quickly put it back on the pedestal with a sheepish grin.

"Hi, thought I'd introduce myself, I'm May!" Ashley grinned

"Hi I'm Ashley Ketchum and this is my best friend, Gary Oak, we're from Pallet town!" She said this excitedly, obviously happy with the thought of making a friend.

"Hello" Gary nodded to her in greeting and her smiled went down a bit as she looked at the sleeping mouse.

"So… how's pikachu?" Ashley smiled at the girl for the though and replied

"He'll be fine! All he needs now is a good nights rest!"

"That's great!" Prof. Birch turned to May.

"Well now May, are you ready to choose your first pokemon?" This piqued the interest of Ashley and Gary.

"What? Your first pokemon!" Ashley spoke in an excited tone and Gary just shook his head at her amusedly.

"Yeah…" May rubbed the back of her head awkwardly

"Well lets go!" Ashley then grabbed a hold of the girls arm and pulled her out of the room after the professor.

"These three pokeballs contain the starter pokemon. First up," he said, releasing a green, gecko like pokemon, "Treeko"

"Wow it's so cool! Is it a water type?" Gary looked at Ashley dumbfounded at her deduction skills.

"Ashy… did that blow to the head yesterday kill some brain cells? That is obviously a grass type!" he looked at her as if she were completely insane and she glared at him. May came and inspected the pokemon, but stepped back

"I dunno… it's kinda creepy…" this time Ashley and Gary both looked at her like she was crazy and Ashley spoke up

"What are you talking about! It's so cool!"

"Next up, Mudkip" he released a little blue pokemon with fins and Ashley cooed

"Aww! What a cutie! That is definitely a water type!" Gary just shook his head, smiling at her.

"Well that one didn't listen to anything I told it to do!" she hmphed and Ashley continued to coo at the mud fish

"How could this cutie do anything wrong?"

"I see you really love pokemon, don't you Ashley?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, last but not least, Torchic" he release an orange chick like pokemon which hopped over to May, rubbing its head on her legs, "Torchic is a fire type"

"Aw! Aren't you a cutie! I choose Torchic!"

"Alright, we here is your pokedex, and some poke balls to catch pokemon with, if you try hard enough, you could become an even better trainer than your father,"

"Sounds like a great goal" Gary stated, smiling at the brunette. She muttered something under her breath

"What was that May?"

"Wha-? Oh, I said I wouldn't trade it for the world!"

Gary woke up and got ready for the day before sitting next to Ashley, who had fallen asleep in a chair next to Pikachu's bedside.

She had been mumbling things in her sleep, asking for Pikachu to get better when he opened his eyes, spotting her and bounding over, nudging her with his head and squeaked

"Pikaa!" Gary looked at him a smiled

"Hey, buddy! Glad to see you're okay!"

"Pikachu!" Ashley opened her eyes and shot up

"Pikachu! You're okay!" she giggled as he jumped into her arms and Gary smiled "Oh, I'm so happy!"

"Time to get ready Ashy, we've got a journey ahead of us!"

"Kay!" he walked out of the room to find Prof. Birch.

When he finally found him, he asked the question that had been nagging at him for a while

"Professor, do you think I could use your video phone?"

"Sure you can! Why though?"

"Well I need to call my grandpa and ask him to send something important to me, do you happen to have a transporter hooked up to the phone?"

"I sure do!"

"Thank you, Sir!" he sat down at the video phone and called his grandfathers lab. It rang a few times before he picked up, "Hey grandpa!"

"Hello Gary! Where are you? Where's Ashley?"

"We're at Prof. Birch's lab, and Ashley is still getting ready for the day before we set off, but I was wondering… do you think you could send Umbreon over?"

"Sure I can! Let me go get him! Why do you need him though?"

"Well we ran into Team Rocket and I wanted to have some backup if anything went wrong"

"That's a great idea! I'll be right back" the old man left the screen for a moment before he came back with a pokeball in his hand, putting it into the transporter "I'm sending him over now." then, a red and white pokeball appeared inside the transporter and he took it happily

"Thanks grandpa! I have to go now" he thanked

"No problem, tell Ashley I said hello!"

"I will, Bye!"

"Bye now" the screen went black as they hung up and Gary thanked the professor before running outside, bumping into Ashley as he walked outside.

"Woah!" she screamed as she fell forward and he quickly grabbed her around the waist, preventing her fall.

"Now why do I always end up saving you?" he jokingly asked

"Hey, this time you caused it!" they heard giggling next to them and turned to look at May.

"Sorry, you guys are just so funny!"

"Well thanks! I'll take that as a compliment" Gary said with a superior smirk and Ashley smacked the back of his head before turning to May.

"He is just arrogance at it's finest, let me tell you!" May giggled before turning to watch pikachu and Torchic who appeared to be playing tag.

"You three need to go to the Pokemon Center in Oldale Town to register for the pokemon league here in Hoenn"

"Actually Prof. I wont be competing. You see I've become a pokemon researcher. I've decided that I want to learn everything I can about pokemon. I'll catch and raise up a team, but I won't be competing." Gary felt the need to tell the man about his goal and the man smiled

"Well I'm sure you'll do great Gary!" then May spoke up

"Um… I'm not sure that I feel all that safe traveling alone

now that my bike is destroyed, thanks to that Pikachu of yours missy!" she pointed the last part at Ashley, who looked a little sheepish

"Sorry about that… Hey why don't you travel with us? You're okay with that right Gary?" she gave Gary the puppy dog eyes and he waved it off

"Sure, the more the merrier" he said dully and she grinned, turning to May.

"How about it?"

"Sure! That sounds great, thank you so much!" she tackled the girl in a quick hug before the Prof. spoke.

"That's a great idea! May knows the way to Oldale Town and now you kids can watch each others backs! Good luck, and goodbye!"

And with that, they were on their way. Umbreon beside Gary, Pikachu on Ashley's shoulder, and Torchic in the arms of May.

**A/N Hope you liked it! Thank you to my reviewers, and everyone who put this story in your favorites or as a story alert!**

**Review! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Just to clear things up a bit, here are the ages of the characters for this fic**

**Ashley- 14**

**Gary- 14**

**May- 12 because I think it's a bit ridiculous that parents let their kids travel on their own at age 10, not that 12 is much better but whatever!**

**Max- 9**

**Brock- 18**

"Hey Gary! Since Oldale Town is so close, you wanna race?" Ashley asked, jumping enthusiastically. Gary smirking at her

"And what make you so sure you even have a chance at winning, huh shorty? And besides I don't really think May over here is up for running" he teased her and she glowered, cursing her shortness as she had to tilt her head to look at him.

"Shut up! Just because I'm short doesn't mean I can't whoop your but in a race!" he just chuckled as she had her little fit. May, who had been trudging behind them looked at the ebony haired girl in amusement, but she didn't dare interrupt.

"Ashykinz, you are 5'1 and you weren't very fast to begin with. I, on the other hand, have longer legs being 5'7, and have always been a fast runner. Who do you think is going to win this, even if you got a head start hm?" Ashley all but snarled at him, making his smirk even wider and May suppressed a giggle in the background. _Those two are just so cute!_ she thought to herself.

"GARY OAK!"

"Yes, Ashley Ketchum?" the smirk was even evident in his voice, only fueling her anger, but before she could reply, he continued "You know, I've been wondering for a while now… does it ever get boring losing all the time?" Ashley looked about to burst but he continued "I mean, you must be so relieved that I'm not doing leagues and stuff after all of those seemingly endless losses. You know I would have beaten you again." for a moment Gary thought about stepping out of her range in case she tried to slap him. It was really a wonder she hadn't slapped him before.

Ashley suddenly looked calmer and that was when Gary looked at her warily, this was when things tended to get a little dangerous. Screaming was only stage one on her anger levels.

"In case you don't recall, _Gare Bear, _I _have_ beaten you before, like at the last time we faced off." she then reached up and touched the pokeball half around her neck "and apparently in your mind, the first time too. HEY WAIT A MINUTE! Gare Bear, I never made your half into a necklace because of Pikachu's incident!" Gary smiled amused and laughed as she got off topic before shrugging off his single strapped purple backpack and unzipping a small pocket in the front, pulling out a small object.

May looked confused and decided to ask what it was. "Uhm, guys? I hate to interrupt your jewelry making and all but what's that?"

Gary laughed a little and explained "It's my half of the pokeball we both carry around. She has her half on her necklace, see, and I asked her on our ferry ride if she'd make mine into one too but we never got around to it." May nodded but was still a little confused.

"Why do you two carry around two halves of some old pokeball?" she was genuinely puzzled at their action. Gary was about to explain before Ashley stepped in, handing him the finished necklace.

"There you go Gare Bear!" Gary took of his old Yin Yang necklace and shoved it in his bag before putting on the new one.

"Thanks Ashy!"

"No prob, now May, we've carried them around since a little before our journeys started back in Kanto. It was about a week or so before we started our journeys and I had gone fishing in my apparently not so secret spot because Gary showed up not long after I put my line in the water, appearing on the other side of the little stream."

"Now, now Ashykinz, you're leaving something out!" Gary smirked remembering the failure he had witnessed that day. She just glared.

"Gary, is it really necessary to say what happened?"

"Yes."

"Fine…" she pouted but continued "He showed up as I was being hit in the face with a flail attack from the Magikarp I had just caught." she hung her head in shame as Gary laughed loudly in rememberence and May started giggling "Oh, hush up you two! Anyways, after he made fun of me for that he, being the arrogant jerk he is, put his line in the water next to mine." May looked at Gary.

"Are you serious? You couldn't find a different spot?" Gary just shugged

"I make it a priority to annoy her at least once every time I see her," May sweat dropped and Ashley just rolled her eyes.

"I figured. But anyway, as we were arguing we both got a tug on our lines, argued some more about whose it was and pulled it out of the water with it connected to both our lines. We continued to fight over who got it and ran down the river, tugging and trying to get it off the others hook. We eventually got to a little bridge and it finally snapped in half, I got this half and he got the other. Of course when I said 'I guess this means we tied' he got a sour look on his face and told me that tying with me was just as bad as losing." she glared slightly at him and he put his hand up in surrender "I kept mine as a good luck charm this whole time, but only put it on the chain at the Silver Conference when Gary pulled his out."

"Why did you keep your half Gary?" May ask curiously and Gary shrugged

"It was my reminder to get better and it pushed me to always try to win, especially against Ash, it was also a kind of symbol to our rivalry, but now I think it's a symbol of how we'll always be rivals, but it shows our friendship as well" Ashley nodded smiling and May almost squealed at the cuteness of it all but held it in.

"Okay so how about that race!" Ashley asked enthusiastically and May groaned

"Do we have to? You two have been practically running the whole way!" Ashley looked let down

"Well we have to get there before nightfall! I don't wanna camp on the first day!" Gary looked between the two amused. At May's next comment, his amusement only grew.

"Well, I _did_ have a bike." She sniffed and Ashley and the yellow fur ball on her shoulder suddenly looked sheepish, Gary almost laughed at the expression.

"Haha… walking it is!"

"Pika…" both of them rubbed the back of their heads

"I thought so!" they continued to walk in silence for a little while before Gary decided to take Blastoise and Umbreon out of their pokeballs to get some fresh air.

"Umbreon!"

"Blast!"

"Hey Gary, I never really asked, but when did you decide to bring Umbreon?" Ashley asked curiously

"Well, since both of our Pokemon were stolen, we didn't have any backup, so I decided to be safe and ask Gramps to send Umbreon over. Actually, I think you should do the same just in case something like that happens and we're separated or something." Ashley nodded in understanding.

"Yeah… I wish I'd been thinking about that. I mean seriously! Coming to a whole new region with only one pokemon that constantly gets stolen! What the heck was going through my mind?" She did a face palm

"So who are so going to bring along?" Ashley thought about it for a moment before her face brightened up with a wide smile.

"I know just who I'll get! You all are just going to have to wait and see!" She was starting to bounce with excitement and Gary started eliminating choices in his mind, but there were too many that she could be excited about, so he decided to wait and see. They walked silently for a minute or so before May spoke up.

"Hey Ash, I thought pokemon were supposed to stay inside their pokeball…" she glanced at pikachu questioningly

"Well, Pikachu never liked being confined in his ball, besides, he likes it out here with me!"

"Pika!" Gary spoke up

"Yes, sometimes pokemon hate being inside their ball and are more comfortable outside with their trainer. Umbreon was rarely in his pokeball as an eevee, but he got more comfortable with it. I don't think Ashley's Pikachu will ever like it's ball though."

"I do still have it though, I always have it in my bag, just incase something seriously terrible happens and I absolutely need to put him in, but so far I haven't put him in it since the moment I got him actually."

"Hmm, I haven't gotten any complaints from my little Torchic… come to think of it, I don't know anything about my Torchic…" she looked a little troubled at this realization.

"Well you can always look it up in your pokedex you know." Gary told her and she beamed.

"Oh yeah! Lets see, it says her that torchic is a fire type, and it's moves are-" Ashley cut her off suddenly

"Hey look at that!" she pointed at a little blue pokemon in front of them and may immediately pointed her pokedex at it. It started to talk in its monotone voice.

"Azurill, the water ball pokemon. Azurill is able to throw its tail like a lasso, using the momentum to move about." May squealed

"It's so cute!" Ashley smiled at her and Gary chuckled a bit.

"Well then why don't you catch it!" Ashley encouraged the brunette.

"Yeah! So, I'll just grab a pokeball, and throw it!" she did exactly as she said and the little pokemon was enveloped in a red light and the pokeball started to wiggle on the ground. Ashley sweat dropped and Gary face palmed

"Woo Hoo! I caught an Azurill!" said pokemon appeared from the ball looking angry "Hey what happened?" the girl looked let down and Gary chuckled before explaining

"May, you need to weaken a pokemon before you catch it okay?" she blushed embarrassed before pulling out Torchic's pokeball.

"Hehe… I knew that…. Well, alright torchic, come on out!" the little orange chick came out in a beam of light before enthusiastically chasing after the azurill. Ashley was sitting on the ground laughing at the scene while Gary and May sweat dropped when torchic ran into a tree.

"Tor- torchic…"

"Torchic! Are you okay?" may ran up to her pokemon in worry, but she got up, glaring at the blue ball.

"May, try calling out one of Torchic's attacks okay?" Gary instructed her and she nodded

"Hmm what were those attacks… oh yeah! Torchic, use your peck attack on azurill!" she tried to do as she was told but ran into another tree, getting angry. The azurill bounced behind some bushes and Torchic unleashed an ember attack ion the direction it went.

"Azu!"

"Alright! Good job Torchic!" they all ran to the sound, only to see three angry pokemon. Azurill, Marill and Azumarill. They unleashed three water gun's at Torchic angrily, the targeted pokemon fainted on the spot causing May to cry out.

"Torchic!" she ran over to the poor thing, picking it up

"Pikachu, use thunderbolt!" the mouse released a bolt of lightning at the ground in front of the pokemon, causing them to dive into the water and swim away

May ran over to her new friends "Oh no, will my Torchic be okay?" Gary answered her calmly.

"I'm sure all Torchic needs is a good rest, but I'm no Nurse Joy. We should get to a Pokemon Center fast just in case because fire types are weak to water types like those." May nodded and looked worriedly at the small orange pokemon in her arms "You know Ashy, it's times like these when I really wish I had Arcanine with me so I could have him use extreme speed."

"Me too Gary. Me too. We should start running so we can get there before nightfall, jut to be safe incase torchic is hurt worse than we thought" May nodded.

"Yeah, lets run"

And with that they were running, Gary in front and May in the back, Ashley was close behind the spiky haired brunette, gaining speed. But he smirked at her as she got close, running faster until they reached some kind of ruin. Gary stopped abruptly making Ashley run into him and fall to the ground. He stumbled at the impact and laughed slightly at her while helping her up.

"Real smooth Ashykinz" She just glared

"Why did you stop?" May suddenly appeared huffing and glared at both of them

"Did you -huff- really -huff huff- have to run -huff- so fast?" they looked apologetically at her

"Sorry May! Anyway, what is this place" a man who had a hairstyle like Brock only with a ponytail in the back walked up to them.

"Well you three, these are the Ruins of Oldale. I'm Professor Alden and I'm here investigating them."

"Hi I'm Ashley"

"I'm May"

"And I'm Gary"

"Well its nice to meet you! Where are you headed in such a rush?" Ashley spoke up

"Well, we were trying to find a Pokemon Center…." the Prof. smiled kindly

"Well you're in luck! Its right down this hill." he pointed down at a large Pokemon Center.

"Thank you sir!"

"No problem." and with that Ashley and Gary sprinted down the hill, May groaned before reluctantly running after them. The man laughed slightly.

"Nurse Joy, could you please see if my Torchic is okay?" The pink haired nurse smiled at the worrying girl in front of her.

"Of course I can!"

"Thank you so much!" Nurse Joy took the pokeball from May's hands and set it on a tray attached to a machine. Statistics showed up on the screen and Nurse Joy typed into a little keyboard

"Well, your Torchic will be just fine! All it needs now is a good nights rest!"

"Oh thank goodness! Thanks so much Nurse Joy!"

"Not a problem" she smiled kindly "I think you three should get a good rest too" Ashley smiled at the Nurse.

"Yeah, we probably should. Could we have a room please?"

"Of course! This is the key to room 57" she handed her a key and Ashley smiled in thanks before they walked away. Ashley handed the room key to Gary.

"You know I lose things easily, so you take it." Gary smirked and took the key. May spoke up then.

"Hey guys, since were in a Pokemon Center, do you think you could give me a tour?"

"Well sure! But first I need to call someone" Gary replied and Ashley looked thoughtful.

"Me too, you guys aren't allowed to see who I'm calling though, it's a secret! Well you can see the second person. But first Gary, call who you need to" Gary shook his head at her rambling but walked over to the video phone and dialed in the number to his grandfather's lab.

After a few rings he picked up. Gary and Ashley were currently fighting over a spot on the chair but stopped when they heard a chuckle.

"Professor!"

"Gramps!"

"Hello you two, did you make it to Hoenn okay?" Gary glared slightly at Ashley who put her hands up in surrender before trying to shove him off the seat again. Gary replied to his Grandpa.

"Well… we made it! We had a couple run-ins with Team Rocket, which is why I got Umbreon from you last night. By the way Ashley don't you need to ask him for something?" Ashley smirked at him shoving him off the seat completely this time, laughing.

"Nope! Not really! But professor, how are all my pokemon doing? Is Bayleaf doing okay without me?" Professor Oak gave her a small smile.

"Yes they're all doing great, Bayleaf is definitely not the happiest pokemon around but she's getting better. Your Bulbasaur has taken it upon himself to make sure she's happy." Ashley almost cooed

"Aw! Bulbasaur always was a sweetheart, making sure no one stayed sad for long!" she smiled before screeching as she was shoved off the seat, glaring up at a smirking Gary who was now in the chair.

"Sorry Ashykinz, but it's my turn to talk!" the older Oak was heard chuckling and Gary looked at him questioningly

"Ashykinz? Gary, when did you ever decide to call her that?" Gary laughed

"Well Ashy didn't really annoy her, so I decided on Ashykinz! She calls me Gare Bear, Gramps! I had to think of something!" The Professor laughed at his grandsons nickname, he would need to update Delia, Ashley's mom, on the little pet names the kids had given each other.

"Well anyway, where are you kids?"

"We just made it to Oldale town and signed Ash up for the Hoenn League"

"Yeah! I'm so psyched up for my first badge!" Ashley piped up from her spot on the floor

"Well that sounds like a great new adventure for you kids!" May leaned over Gary excitedly

"Yup! I'm May by the way! My brother has read all of your books, he'll be so jealous when he figures out I met you and I'm friends with your grandson!" Oak, Gary and Ashley sweat dropped.

"Well it's nice to meet you May!"

"I know I'm just a beginning trainer but I promise I'll do my best!"

"Well with Ashley and Gary by your side, I'm sure you'll do great in whatever field of pokemon training you choose! Now I wish you all a safe journey, goodbye now!"

"Bye Professor!" Ashley and May said in unison before laughing. Gary shook his head at them.

"See ya Gramps! You might want to wish me luck with these two aswell…" he mumbled quietly so only his grandfather could hear. He laughed before ending the call.

"Alrighty Ashy, call the person we're allowed to see first" Ashley dialed a number and waited for her friend to pick up. After a few rings, a red headed girl was visible on the screen. Gary didn't seem very shocked that this was who she'd call.

"Misty! Guess where I am!" the red head beamed at the girl who had called her

"Ashley! I miss you! And let me guess. The Hoenn Region?" she asked with a knowing smile

"Aw Mist! I miss you too! Hey, wait a minute! How'd you know?" Ashley was confused on how her friend had figured it out, but then she realized that her friends knew her better than she thought they did.

"Ashley come on, after Harrison mentioned the Hoenn Region me and Brock could see that you were just dying to go there! It was likely you'd go sooner rather than later, Now who are you with because I can't see their faces." Ashley motioned for her two friends to bed down. As soon as Misty saw Gary she gasped slightly and he smirked.

"Hey there Misty, surprised to see me?"

"Gary, please shut up. Sorry for his annoyingness Mist, this is May, Pikachu fried her bike and now we're traveling together! Déjà vu huh!" Misty giggled at her friends ability to make a friend after destroying something of theirs.

"No kidding! Nice to meet you May! By the way, she said déjà vu because that's how we started traveling together. Anyway Ash, how on earth did you start traveling with your rival? I mean I know there's that one factor but still!" Ashley glared dangerously at Misty and said very quietly so only the redhead could hear.

"Misty! I told you not to mention that! Ever!" she went back to a normal tone, "I'm traveling with him because first of all, I really don't like traveling alone! And second, we decided that we became best friends along the way and it would be a good idea to watch each others backs"

"Whatever you say Ash, but anyway, before I have to go I want you to get some Pokegear because you can message people on those and I have one! I'll give you my number after you get it so you don't lose it."

"Alright! Bye Misty, I have to make another call now."

"Talk to you soon, Bye!" and with that they hung up and Ashley turned around to look at her companions.

"Gary, how about you go show May around while I make this call?"

"Fine, fine, c'mon May" and with that they walked off.

Ashley quickly dialed a number. A woman appeared on the screen with a smile.

"Hey Ashley! Long time no see!"

"Hey! Listen, I need to ask you a favor."

**(I almost ended it here but decided to make it longer since I'm not even halfway through the episode)**

Ashley was beaming as she walked around looking for her two friends, until of course she was knocked to the ground by said friends. She looked up at the sheepish brunettes holding out their hands to her. She took them and got yanked to her feet, almost falling over again.

"Seriously? Why do I keep falling on the ground?"

"Because you're clumsy of course! Now come on, lets get something to eat!" Gary said cheerfully and she looked at him as if her were insane before registering what her had said.

"YAY! I'm starving, lets go!" she sprinted to the food court in the Center and they all got some food before sitting in a booth

"So Ashley, I heard some people talking before we went to eat and they said something about there being a new gym leader in Petalburg City!" Ashley beamed

"Really? I wonder who!" just then, the Professor they had met walked over to their table.

"Well look who it is! The three weary travelers! Glad to see you made it okay."

"Oh hi Professor!" Ashley looked at him for a second and saw his ponytail, she quickly looked over at Gary and smiled widely "Gary, you know what you need? A ponytail! Your hair is long enough in the back!" Gary looked at her like she was insane before seeing that the professor had one. He looked apologetically at Gary, who was starting to look fearful.

"Ashley… I'm not letting you touch my hair." He said sternly but she disregarded the tone.

"I don't care! It will happen no matter what you say and if I think it looks good you will keep it!" Gary groaned and banged his head on the table, he knew there was no stopping her.

"Hehe, sorry kid, that's probably my fault" the man rubbed the back of his head

"No, no, I'm sure the next person we saw with a ponytail would've put the idea in her head anyway, it was inevitable." came Gary's annoyed reply.

"Well anyway, I was wondering if you kids would like to learn more about those ruins-" Gary shot up excitedly

"Really! That would be amazing!" the man laughed

"Well then come along" they got up and followed

The three were looking at a picture of the ruins hanging on the wall

"These are so cool!"

"Yeah, the Center was kind enough to give me an office here while I studied the ruins. It's said that the stone chamber beneath the ruins is a sort of bridge or portal from our world to the ancient Pokemon world!" Gary was like a kid in a candy store now.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah! But unfortunately, any attempts to get into the chamber have caused it to begin crumbling, so it's contents remain unknown." Gary looked slightly disappointed and Ashley spoke up

"What do you mean by ancient pokemon?"

"Well, I'm not talking about the extinct fossil pokemon like Aerodactal, I'm talking about Ancient pokemon that have been living since ancient times without changing at all!" Ashley looked shocked

"Wow…" Gary was amazed

"They haven't changed one bit? That's amazing!"

"Most of the information about ancient pokemon, like how they lived and where they lived is still a complete mystery to the world!" he chuckled lightly "Guess it's all that mystery that makes it so fascinating!"

Gary nodded fast and Ashley giggled at his antics, May was just amazed

"Well there might be more to pokemon than I thought" She said and Gary looked at her weirdly

"Of course there is! There's so many mysteries about pokemon it's amazing! That's why I decided to be a researcher. So I can figure out all kinds of those mysteries!" he explained and the Prof. looked at him appraisingly

"Hmm, I think you've got what it takes kid." Gary beamed

"Thanks Professor!" Ashley was looking at the picture of the ruins, off in her own world.

"Ancient pokemon… I'd love to meet one."

"Pika Pika…" the mouse in her arms seemed to agree.

"Well you just might get your chance Ashley, the way to gain entrance is right here on this tablet" he pulled out an old rock tablet with writing carved into it. Gary looked at it with care

"This is amazing!"

"Your kidding!"

"Let's go then!"

"Well, there are four keys that haven't been found yet, but once we do I'll bring you to see it"

"Wow, thanks so much!"

"I hope we find those four keys soon!" right after Ashley spoke the lights went off and a bunch of people in red uniforms barged into the room with their houndooms snarling in front of them. Professor Alden was outraged.

"What is the meaning of this!" he yelled and Gary stepped in front of Ashley and May, shielding them from the view of the intruders. One of the intruders spoke in a gruff voice.

"Prof. Alden, you will be accompanying us to the Oldale Ruins" the Prof. looked furious, a strange look for the kind man.

"I will not!" then they saw a light near the door and a soft voice

"I'm sorry, Prof. Alden when the power wen- Oh!" Nurse joy gasped when she saw the red uniformed people and again when one of them went and grabbed her. The man spoke again.

"Well now Professor, have you rethought that decision?" he chuckled darkly and an angry frown marred the kind mans face

"Yes… I'll go with you… just don't hurt them or I swear I wont do anything you want me to!"

"Fine then. Grunts, lock them up. Prof. we're going on a walk." he laughed darkly as he walked out of the room, two men dragging the Prof. behind him.

One man dragged Nurse Joy away and a couple more advanced on the three of them. Gary put his arms up and backed up a little, shielding his two friends. His main focus now was to keep them as safe as he could, and these men advancing on the were _not_ safe!

One man got a little close and Gary punched him hard in the face smirking as he howled in pain, falling to the ground.

"You will NOT touch them! If you do, I promise I'll make you regret the moment you did for the rest of your life!" Gary all but snarled, glaring at them dangerously. The men hesitated for a moment before two ran up at him. Gary dropped to the ground, sweeping their legs out from under them and stood up as they fell to the ground.

"Really? You think two can get through me?" he regretted that comment as five of the men came forward.

He punched two in the face before a third man punched him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. Taking the chance a fourth hit him hard with something on the back of his head. He heard The girls scream before a blackness overtook him.

Gary woke up to the tearstained faces of May and Ashley and the worried one of Nurse Joy. As he tried to sit up he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head and groaned.

"What the hell happened?" Ashley and May beamed

"Gary! Thank God you're okay! One of those men hit you with a metal pipe or something and you blacked out! After that they dragged us to this room and We've been trying to get you up. The good news is that you wont need stitches for the cut on your head!" Ashley said the last part happily but Gary remained serious.

"Did they hurt any of you? If they did I swear I'll kill them!" Ashley smiled slightly and shook her head.

"No, they just dragged us here and threw us in. It was only a minute or so ago so you weren't out for long"

"Good. Now lets try to get out of here, the Prof. needs our help!" Nurse Joy spoke up

"So do all the pokemon being treated in the Center. We need to put on the reserve power or they could be in real danger!"

"What! You mean my Torchic's in danger?" May asked worriedly and Ashley looked determined.

"Well we need to get out of here to do that! Come on let's figure a way out!"

"Pika!" Pikachu called, he was next to an air vent waving his arms.

"An air shaft! Great job buddy!" Ashley praised her friend and they hurried over the vent. Gary yanked the cage over the vent off and ushered everyone through, going in last. Nurse Joy looked on worriedly, she had stayed behind, waiting for them to turn on the power so she could get out the door.

Once they got out May ran and turned on the reserve power and Ashley went behind the front desk, rummaging around before she found what she wanted.

"Ah Ha! Here's the master key! Lets go get Nurse Joy out of there and get the Prof."

After freeing the nurse, the three friends were running up the hill to the Ruins. When they got to the top they saw Prof. Alden sitting down on a rock.

"Professor! Are you alright?" he smiled at them

"Yes, kids I'm fine. Tell me, would you like to see the inside of that stone chamber?" he showed them four little ball shaped gems in red, blue, green and yellow. Gary smiled widely.

"You got the keys? Lets go check it out!"

They walked into the chamber and looked around in wonder, Prof. Alden putting the gems in their rightful places when the sun started to come up. May looked shocked.

"Wow… morning already?" as she said this the gems started to glow, the lines along the chamber glowing as well before the door of the chamber moved backward, revealing a stone staircase leading downward.

"Woah! Lets check it out!" the four went down the stairs to find a large supply of water, sparklingly clean and fresh.

"Wow! An underground water supply!"

"It smells so fresh and clean!"

"I wonder if it leads out to sea…" the professor said thoughtfully before they all gasped as a fish like pokemon leaped out of the sparkling water. "Great Scott! It's the ancient pokemon Relicanth!"

"Relicanth?" Ashley questioned amazed. Gary was practically jumping up and down

"Well I'll be… that means it's true! These ruins are a portal between the present and the past!" The professor was just as excited as Gary.

"That's so… amazing…" Gary was breathless

"May, I'm happy to report that your Torchic is as good as new!" Nurse Joy announced to them after they had woken up from a short sleep.

"That's great! Thank you Nurse Joy!"

"It wasn't a problem" the Nurse smiled

"Alright Torchic, c'mon out!" the little orange chic popped out in a beam of light and jumped into her trainers arms

"Torchic tor!" it called happily

"Oh Torchic, I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Alright, time to leave you guys!" Gary popped up next to the girls

"Leaving already?" a voice asked them and they turned to see Prof. Alden

"Yeah, sorry Prof. but we've gotta keep moving and get to Petalburg city for Ash and May's gym battle"

"Oh, well hey, guess what! I've been doing some more research over at the ruins and I figured out by all those drawings on the walls that ancient and extinct pokemon all used to coexist peacefully with humans!" he exclaimed happily

"Wow! That's so cool!" May smiled and so did Ashley

"Yeah you've learned so much in so little time!" Gary nodded

"It's truly amazing"

"Yeah I can hardly stop working! It's all just so amazing, finding out about all these mysteries! By the way, Gary I want you to have this." he handed the brunette a notebook. "It's a copy of all my studies on these ruins, I have another but I made a copy for you to study." Gary beamed at the man in front of him

"Seriously? Thank you so much Professor! I'll learn as much as I can from this I promise!" the Prof. nodded kindly

"No problem kid. Well goodbye you three! I hope you have safe travels!" he waved to them as he walked away

"Goodbye Prof.!"

"Oh hey I forgot!" Ashley exclaimed as the three friends were walking on a trail. The other two looked at her in question as she dug through her bag. Gary paled as she found what she was looking for "My mom packed a bunch of these in case I needed to put my hair up!" she showed them a small black hair band and Gary groaned

"Gary, sit on that rock" May giggled as Gary did as he was told, sitting on a large rock. "May can you look in the front pocket of my bag for two mirrors please?"

"Sure!" Ashley walked over to the rock and grabbed the long hair on the base of Gary's scalp. It was a bit longer there, almost reaching the base of his neck. She tied the bit of hair into a small ponytail before going all the way around a pouting Gary and back to where she had been standing behind him.

May walked over with the mirrors and handed one to Ashley and the other to Gary. Ashley positioned hers so you could see the back of Gary's head with it.

"You know, it doesn't look too bad" May giggled and Gary scowled

"Yeah, yeah, we all know I'll always look great now what am I supposed to do with the mirror?" he asked sourly and Ashley flicked the side of his head

"Stop pouting. You position the mirror so my mirror is in the view of that one. That way you can see the ponytail." Gary did as she said

"I guess it looks okay… but don't expect me to keep it the whole journey!"

"I never expected that. But at least wear it sometimes!"

"Fine." he grumbled and Ashley smirked

"Now, let's go to Petalburg!"

**A/N Holy cow that was a long chapter! 13 pages in Microsoft Word! I hope you liked it!**

**Review! **


	5. Chapter 5

Gary, Ashley and May were walking along a dirt path when the heard a small, human like cry and loud growls ahead of them. Ashley's eyes widened a fraction.

"What was that!" May asked, slightly panicked. Gary looked a little wary and grabbed a pokeball.

"Umbreon, come on out."

"Bre! Umbreon?" he looked at his trainer as if asking what was wrong.

"Umbreon, I want you to follow those growls okay? Be careful though, I'll be right behind you."

"Breon!" he cried and ran towards the growls and cries, Gary right behind.

"I want you two to stay here okay?" He yelled over his shoulder and didn't wait for an answer as he followed his trusted pokemon. A minute later they had found what they were looking for. A pack of wolf like pokemon were crowded around a small form, snapping and scratching at it

"Umbreon, use shadow ball repeatedly until they leave, but don't hit the thing they're crowded around!" as the pokemon did as he was told, Gary pointed his pokedex at the wolfish pokemon, it revealed that they were Mightyena, the bite pokemon.

The Mightyena pack turned around to face Umbreon, forgetting about whatever they had been attacking before and Gary realized his mistake, Umbreon was outnumbered 5 to 1.

"Crap. Crap, Crap and a little more crap! Umbreon, faint attack! Blastoise come on out! Use hydro pump to blast them away!" And with a powerful hydro pump, the Mightyena flew back into a tree, yelping and running off. Gary let out a sigh of relief and returned his pokemon "You two did great!" he complemented before shrinking and attaching them to his belt.

"Gary! Are you alright?" Ashley came running towards him.

"I'm perfectly fine, didn't I tell you to stay away? It was a pack of Mightyena by the way, look it up in your pokedex." he turned away from her to find what the pack had been attacking and gasped slightly when he saw it.

It was a small, human like pokemon with a white body and a green helmet like thing over its head with two red spikes protruding from the top. Realizing it was some type of pokemon he pulled out his pokedex while rushing towards the broken figure. His pokedex spoke in its monotone voice.

"Ralts, the feeling pokemon. Ralts is the pre evolved form of Kirlia. It can use the horns on its head to read emotions. Ralts rarely shows itself to humans, but may occasionally approach when it senses positive or happy feelings."

Gary looked worriedly at the poor thing that was emitting small cries, it was smaller than the stats on the pokedex had shown, so Gary guessed that it was a baby. This made him worry more. With no parent in sight, this pokemon would never survive with its wounds unless they got it to a Pokemon Center quickly.

He scooped it into his arms and it cried slightly louder in fear.

"Shh, it's okay Ralts, I won't hurt you, I promise. It'll all be okay, we're going to get you all better. How does that sound?" he comforted the childlike pokemon in his arms with a soft, soothing voice and Ashley looked at him in worry.

"Will it be okay? Those cuts look deep… we need to get May _now_ so we can hurry to Petalburg and a Pokemon Center!" Gary nodded and they ran back to May, Ashley spoke.

"May, c'mon we need to go now! We have to run the rest of the way to Petalburg!" one look at the small form in Gary's arms and she nodded, running behind them

* * *

Currently, Gary was sitting anxiously in the waiting room, worrying for the poor little Ralts he'd brought in about two hours ago. Umbreon was curled up on his lap, nuzzling his hand in comfort. Ashley and May were also worried, sitting next to him. May was biting her nails and Ashley was pacing back and forth.

"Ashley, you and May should go to that gym battle, I'll be fine here. You just go and I'll wait here to see if Ralts will be okay. The battle should get your mind off of it. Who knows, maybe Ralts will be fine and I can go see it." he told the girls in front of him and Ashley nodded.

"Alright… you sure you'll be okay?" Gary scoffed half-heartedly

"It's you that I would be worried about, you danger magnet!" Ashley made a humph sound and May spoke up

"I actually have to do a couple things first, but I'll meet you at the gym in a bit, okay Ash?" Ashley nodded and they walked away.

Gary sighed and pet his faithful Umbreon as he waited.

About 20 minutes later, the towns Nurse Joy walked out of the operating room smiling and Gary quickly returned Umbreon before rushing over to her

"Nurse Joy! Is the Ralts okay? Nothing too serious right?" Nurse Joy smiled kindly at the worried boy in front of her.

"Yes, she'll be just fine. I've fixed her up, she's still a little scared though, and I recommend giving her some rest and to keep her out of traumatizing events." Gary noticed her use of the words she and her.

"It's a girl?" The nurse nodded and he smiled "Well don't you worry, I'll make sure she's cared for, and if she wants to, I'll catch her and bring her along on our journey."

"That would probably be best since you said there were no Gardevoir or Kirlia around. She was probably abandoned or else her parent would have easily taken care of a Mightyena pack" Gary nodded, agreeing with the statement. "Well then, would you like to get her now? She's well enough to leave." Gary smiled widely

"Of course!" they walked to a room and opened the door to see the Ralts sitting upright with her hand in her mouth like a child would suck their thumb. Once she caught sight of Gary, she took her hand out of her mouth and smiled happily

"Raaalts!" she leaped to him and he caught her, only to be shocked when she hugged him, he hugged back none the less.

"Well hi there Ralts, my name is Gary" he smiled at the small pokemon in his arms, relieved that she was okay.

They walked out of the Center after Nurse Joy gave him a special liquid pokemon food for the baby Ralts since she couldn't have solid food yet, much like a human child. **(A/N I'm going off of how Brock's Bonsly drank some kind of formula from a bottle like a baby)**

"So Ralts, how would you like to travel around with me and my friends? Do you think that would be fun?" he ask the baby pokemon in his arms and she smiled wide.

"Raaalts! Ralts raaaaa!" taking that as a yes, he pulled out an empty pokeball he'd brought with him.

"If you really want to, and you want me to be your trainer, go ahead and push this little button okay?" he smiled as she pushed the button and was enveloped in a red beam of light. The ball clicked immediately, indicating that the Ralts hadn't fought it at all. He let her out of the ball before shrinking it and attaching it to his belt.

"You'll have lots of fun Ralts, I promise. Now you know how I explained to you about my friends and those gym battles? Well we're going to go see if we can watch part of that battle alright?" Ralts nodded excitedly, wanting to meet her new trainers friends.

They made it to the gym and Gary pushed open the door to find an empty room.

"Hm, I wonder where everyone is… HEY ASHLEY! DID YOU LOSE YOUR GYM BATTLE ALREADY?" he heard footsteps coming from behind him and turned, only to see a flash of black hair before he was hugged "Hey, hey, Ashy be careful!" he scolded her and she let go smiling sheepishly "You alright there ralts? The pokemon just smiled.

"Raaaal!" Ashley cooed

"AW! Aren't you just the cutest thing!" she took the pokemon from his arms and hugged it softly "I'm so glad you're okay!" the pokemon giggled

"So where is everyone? And May?"

"Oh, you'll never believe it! May is the Gym Leader's daughter! Follow me, she and her family are waiting for us in this room over here. Just a warning though, May's little brother will annoy you more than me because you lost to me in the Silver Conference! He's been bugging me about it this whole time that I lost. But you lost to me so he'll probably bug you more."

"Now, now Ashykinz, lets not get ahead of ourselves! That was a onetime loss and you know it. You just happened to win when it really counted." and with that he pushed the door open with a fuming Ashley behind him

"Oh shut up." she grumbled and the Ralts in her arms giggled, making her smile. "Alright everyone, this is Gary! Gary, this is Norman, Caroline and Max"

"Nice to meet you, as Ashley already said, I'm Gary Oak, from Pallet town." he smiled and shook Mays mother and fathers hands before turning to the brunette girl who had her Torchic on her lap.

"So you're a gym leader's kid? That figures, Ashley has traveled with a Gym leader/Gym leader's son and a Gym leader's sister who now happens to be a Gym leader herself. Something like this was bound to happen" he chuckled slightly and May laughed, glad that no one was mad that she hadn't told them.

"Yeah, sorry for not telling you guys…" Gary smiled

"That's fine! I understand you not telling us" Caroline decided to speak up.

"Well how about we have lunch? You kids must be starved!" Ashley smiled

"Sure!"

* * *

"So May tells me you two have been traveling for a long time." Ashley smiled at the kind woman

"Oh yeah, we've traveled through two regions so far. I've been to lots of places" Gary looked up from bottle feeding Ralts awkwardly.

"This is our first time traveling with each other though. I always traveled alone, but Ashley had her two friends. Somehow, she roped me into coming with her to Hoenn just as I was leaving Pallet" Ashley scowled at him.

"Don't act like I forced you! I asked you and you agreed, very happily I might add!" Gary smirked

"Not as happy as you when I said I would" he teased and she flushed slightly. Mays little brother, Max had stars in his eyes

"Wow… that must be so cool! I'd love to go to different places too…"

"Well that's great that you did have people to travel with, Ashley"

"Oh yeah, it's a lot more fun too! Honestly Gary, I don't know how you could just travel alone like that"

Max spoke up again "I wish I could travel around with a bunch of my good buddies… that'd be great!" Gary smiled at the boy, it was obvious to him that the kid wanted to travel with them. May suddenly remembered why they had gone to the gym in the first place.

"Dad, Ashley would like to have a gym battle with you" the man smiled kindly.

"Of course I will! How many badges have you earned so far?" Ashley smiled a little sheepish but determined

"Well, this'll be the first one for Hoenn!"

"Ah, so you're just starting out here" Ashley nodded

"Yep! What are your gym's rules?" Max suddenly spoke up in an 'I know all' sort of tone

"I already told you! It's a three on three elimination remember!" Ashley deflated and Gary looked slightly disappointed

"Three on three? But I only have Pikachu…"

"What? You only have one pokemon? No wonder you lost in the second round" the little boy beside her snickered and Gary decided he liked this kid.

"I told you already, kid! Those were the championship rounds! And at least I beat him!" she pointed angrily at Gary and he calmly put his hands up in surrender before smirking

"For the first time ever in a pokemon battle, probably that last too, considering I won't be letting you win again" She scowled at him but he continued "Your win was purely luck."

"Gary?" she looked at him calmly, that's when he showed a slight amount of fear. The Maple family looked at them curiously. Even in fear of her, Gary still pushed at the boundaries of her anger.

"Yes Ashykinz?" he asked her innocently and a fire flared in her eyes, he handed his Ralts to May and got ready to bolt.

"Run." she calmly stated and he didn't have to be told twice, he shot out of his seat and sprinted out the door. Ashley turned and flashed a smile at the family sitting wide eyed in front of her. "So, what were you saying Norman?"

The man in question chuckled "Well, I could battle you still, it wont be an official gym battle of course, but we could have a one on one battle if you'd like" Ashley smiled widely

"Really? Oh, thank you, thank you! I'll make sure me and Pikachu give our all!" he little mouse seemed to agree.

"Pika!"

* * *

"Alright, Pikachu get in there!" Ashley pointed forward at the battlefield in front of her and the Pikachu at her feet ran forward. On the sidelines, Max looked a little smug

"She's pretty confident for someone with only one pokemon" He smirked and Gary walked in, taking ralts from May and leaning against the wall.

"She doesn't only have Pikachu you know. She has a whole bunch back at the lab, But made a vow to only use the pokemon she caught here in Hoenn. One of her Pokemon will apparently be here soon though, which means it's going to be one of two different pokemon, but really it could be either." He said the last part decisively to himself. Max looked slightly sheepish, only slightly.

"Alright, I choose you, Vigoroth!" The Gym Leader shouted, releasing a pokemon that Ashley's pokedex revealed to be the wild monkey pokemon.

The pokemon growled and made its claws into hooks, "VIGOROTH!" Ashley and Pikachu flinched badly and Gary winced slightly, the thing looked about ready to kill something. May, Max and Caroline weren't fazed at all though.

If anything, Max got more excited, "Wow! Dad's Vigoroth is raring to go!"

Gary decided that he would stay quiet while observing any of her battles and leaned against the Gym wall, holding his baby ralts in his arms. _Focus, Ashley… your opponent has speed and pure power, don't let cockiness , excitement and your lack of observation ruin your chances in this…._

"Pikachu, attack!" Norman chuckled slightly and calmly ordered.

"Vigoroth, scratch attack." Ashley's eyes widened at the pokemon's speed before ordering

"Pikachu, dodge!" but it was slightly to late, Pikachu was scooped up in the hooked claws and flung across the room. The ralts in Gary's arms turned to watch the battle with rapt attention and Gary chuckled, it seemed his baby pokemon had an interest in battling.

"Pi!" he squeaked as he hit the ground with a thud, Ashley gasped

"Pikachu! Are you alright buddy?" the mouse jumped to his feet, assuring his trainer he was fine.

"Pika!" Ashley smiled relieved, but Norman wasted no time.

"Scratch again!"

"Dodge it!" Ashley smirked as Pikachu dodged the strike, a smirk that fell a second later when the mouse was hit by the claws of Vigoroth's fast acting arm. "Your okay buddy! Hurry, get 'em with a quick attack!"

Gary was slightly shocked when the quick attack was successfully dodged, but hid it well. It wasn't easy to dodge on of the yellow mouse's quick attacks, he had to give the other pokemon props for that.

"Wha… Pikachu thunderbolt!" she was still confident, but Gary could see it in her eyes, she was getting very frustrated. Her eyes hardened into a slight glare as the pokemon dodged even the thunderbolt. "Keep 'em going Pikachu!" she held most of it back, but Gary heard the little bit of aggravation in her voice that broke through.

_Not good…_ he thought to himself _don't let your frustration get the best of you Ashy!_

"Keep dodging!" the two pokemon came to a slight standstill and Ashley took the chance.

"Pikachu, quick attack!" finally, an attack hit and Ashley smiled "Great job buddy!"

On the sidelines, Caroline spoke up. "I didn't think they had a chance against dad's Vigoroth." she said, slightly impressed that the girl had even hit the pokemon.

May was in slight awe "Yeah, Ash's good huh?"

Max was just plain excited "Of course she's good! She _did_ make it to the championship round of the Silver Conference you know!"

Gary smirked at the kid. Couldn't make up his mind could he?

He turned his attention to the battle again.

"Vigoroth, scratch attack!" the attack hit its mark and Gary knew it was over then and there. "Now finish it!"

The large pokemon charged wildly and Gary winced ever so slightly, averting his gaze as it flung the small mouse into the wall. The impact made a hole in the wall and the electric mouse fell to the ground limply.

Ashley made a small scream and sprinted over to her pokemon. "PIKACHU!" she knelt down and scooped him in her arms, her eyes slightly glassy. "Pikachu, are you okay?"

Gary set Ralts down and walked over to his friend, putting his hand on her shoulder "Don't worry Ashley, Pikachu has been in worse battles than that one, you know that better than anyone, he'll be perfectly fine in a few minutes" the Pikachu opened his eyes blearily and smiled weakly at his trainer

"Pikaa" Ashley beamed at the mouse and looked up at Gary

"I know, I overreact sometimes when he gets hurt. It's my own fault though, if I had kept my cool and not been so overly confident in the beginning, it might've been a better battle for us. The excitement got the better of me." She said this a little guiltily and Gary shook his head.

"You're right, but don't beat yourself up, we all make mistakes. Learn from it though." he said the last part sternly before pulling out a potion and spraying Pikachu twice. "That should do it." Pikachu sprang up happily healed

"Pika!"

Ashley turned to Norman, the whole family had watched the scene with interest, "That's a strong Vigoroth you've got there Norman! You've shown me that I definitely need to work hard if I'm going to succeed in the Hoenn Region."

Just then, a loud bang sounded through the room as a large hole was created in the wall across from them

"What was that?" May panicked a little.

Gary face palmed and Ashley sweat dropped as they heard familiar voices speaking in rhymes.

"Prepare for trouble from a hole in the wall!"

"Make it double, you're in for a brawl"

"To protect the world from devastation"

"To unite all peoples within our nation"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James"

"Team Rocket makes a mad dash at the speed of light"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight"

"Meowth , that's right!"

Gary looked thoroughly annoyed "Oh would you give it a rest already? You fail completely every single time you try to steal our pokemon, what on earth makes you think that you will now?"

Jessie glared at him "Can it, kid! Now, we've come to steal your pokemon-"

"Oh no. I'm _so_ scared. What ever will I do?" Gary cut in blandly and Jessie went red with anger

"SHUT IT TWERP! Go Arbok!" Gary didn't even flinch and James and Meowth looked at him, impressed at the emotionless face he'd mastered

"Wow… that twerp has guts. No matter, go Wheezing! Use smokescreen!"

The room was soon filled with smoke and Gary promptly let out Blastoise and Umbreon. Max nearly had a fit at the sight of the two pokemon he'd released, but started to cough because of the smoke.

"Everyone hold your breath!" Norman instructed and Jessie was heard speaking

"Arbok, give them a headbutt!" Pikachu was hit and got angry, sparking at his cheeks

"Vigoroth, lets go!"

"Vigooor-ROTH!" the wild monkey pokemon started to attack wheezing.

"Umbreon, Help out Vigoroth! Blastoise, stay with me!" Umbreon ran of to help with James's Wheezing, hitting it with a shadow ball.

"Blastoise, help out Pikachu! Use Bite on Arbok!" the snake pokemon hissed in pain

"Headbutt!" Blastoise was hit with a head butt but wasn't fazed at all, for it had hit his shell, leaving the snake dizzy. Gary suddenly heard Max speaking.

"Hey, May, shouldn't you help out? I mean you have a pokemon." Gary knew this would not help, only hurt. Torchic was still at a low level and wouldn't be useful in this battle, but most likely get hurt.

"No, May! Stay out of this! Your Torchic isn't strong enough yet to battle with Team Rocket!" He yelled in the general direction of where he'd heard the boy's voice and heard an affirmative

"Alright Gary!" from May.

"Well this has been amusing, we'll be taking Pikachu and Vigoroth now!" Jessie's voice sounded through the smoke

"Oh no you don't! Pikachu thunderbolt!"

Max yelled slightly and groaned. Ashley looked through the rapidly clearing smoke and saw Max laying, slightly singed, on the ground.

"Oh no! did Pikachu's thunderbolt hit you?" she asked worriedly, even though he annoyed her, she'd always had a fondness for little kids.

"Wow… it's one thing to learn about Pikachu's thunderbolt on TV, but another to actually feel it in the flesh… I'm impressed" he said groaning, slightly dazed from the bolt.

"They're gone!" May was the one to notice first when the smoke cleared

"Well my Vigoroth is still here…" Norman trailed off, looking at Ashley

"So is Pikachu" she said slightly confused and looked around, Blastoise and Umbreon were there too, so why did they-

"No…. no, no, NO!" everyone's head snapped to Gary who was on his knees, pulling at his hair, he looked up with an angry, pained expression "They got Ralts! She must have wandered into the smoke and they snatched her! DANG IT! SHE"S JUST A BABY! I WAS SUPPOSED TO KEEP HER SAFE FROM TRAUMA LIKE THIS FOR AT LEAST A DAY! BUT CAN I DO THAT? NO! OF COURSE NOT! GAH!" Everyone looked at him in shock, they didn't expect him to explode like that. He'd been calm and cool the whole time and this was a shock. To the Maple family, that is.

Ashley knew that Gary cared deeply for that baby pokemon as if it were a human child, She knew what it was like to be the new parent of a baby pokemon, and to have them stolen away from you. She'd experienced the same kind of thing with Phanpy, right after he'd hatched.

She walked cautiously over to him and knelt down in front of him, detaching his hand from his hair. She noted that his eyes were tightly clamped shut.

Ashley spoke in a soft, soothing voice, "Gary, hey it's okay. We'll get her back, I promise! I went through the same thing right after Phanpy hatched, but we got him back, so we can find Ralts."

He opened his eyes to look at her "Ashy… I failed her, I failed her already…. I told Ralts that everything would be fine as long as she was with me. I told her I'd protect her! I couldn't even go a day without her getting stolen out from under me! I'm such a failure!" he looked miserable and Ashley was slightly shocked to see this side of him. He rarely showed this much emotion, especially in front of people.

She wrapped her arms around him in a comforting embrace.

"Hey. Don't speak like that Gary Samuel Oak! You are not, and never will be a failure! We will go and find Ralts and that is that, so stop your moping, we've got a baby to save!" He nodded firmly and hugged her back tightly, releasing her and standing up, Ashley followed the example, getting up as well.

They turned to look at the family who'd silently watched the exchange in wonder and Gary spoke.

"Do you think you could help us look? The more people, the easier it would be to find them"

Norman nodded firmly with a determined look. "Of course we will! No one should be stealing pokemon! Especially one of my daughters friends pokemon! We'll find her." the rest of the family agreed and they walked outside through the hole.

* * *

Once they were in the forest, Norman spoke up.

"Alright kids, we should split up. Me and Caroline will go that way."

"Alright, good luck." Gary told them and they ran off in the other direction.

"Knowing Mom and Dad, they'll probably find them" Max said in a matter of fact tone.

"Probably…" May agreed.

"Yeah, your parents are pretty awesome May!" Ashley spoke cheerfully before mumbling under her breath to herself, "Wish my dad was more like Norman…"

Gary, being the only one who heard her say this, put a hand on her shoulder in comfort, he knew about the situation with her dad, and he held anger towards him because of it.

Ashley looked at him with a small smile before turning to the siblings in front of them, Max was searching for something on the ground, when he got up and spoke in a smart voice.

"Nope, they didn't leave any tracks" May looked slightly annoyed

"Maybe that's because they left in their hot air balloon, smart one" she punched him lightly on the arm and his eyes welled up with tears

"Waaaaaaa! May hit me! I'm telling Mom!" May looked more annoyed. Gary smirked though, he knew just what the kid was doing. Ashley on the other hand, did not.

"Oh… come on Max, don't cry, she didn't hit you that hard!" She was panicking slightly.

"Oh don't bother, he's faking it." May said bored. The boy stopped crying immediately and pushed up his glasses.

"Oh well, I knew that trick would get old at some point." Gary chuckled at the devious kid, he decided that he liked him.

Ashley looked dumbfounded and Gary laughed at her.

"Oh come on, you and I both know you've used that trick before! You got me in trouble with that when we were kids!" Ashley went a little red, but smirked.

"Hey, not my fault the Prof. believed a crying little girl over his grandson. I liked to use my cute innocent face to my advantage." Gary shook his head, remembering the many times he'd gotten in trouble from the her faked tears, pretending that he'd pushed her or something of the sort.

"Whatever."

Suddenly, Norman and Caroline ran up to them.

"We've located their balloon!"

"Then lets go!"

They were hiding behind some bushes, staring at the balloon and the small cage in front of it.

Gary was furious.

"A _cage_! They have her in a _cage_!" May and Max suddenly stood up and ran towards it.

"Don't worry Ralts! We'll get you!" Gary was about to shout but Ashley beat him to it

"Don't! there might be-" The two siblings screamed as they fell into one of Team Rocket's signature holes "A hole." Ashley finished with a wince.

Norman and Caroline quickly ran after their children

"We'll got you kids!" Gary shouted this time

"No! there might be another-" he was too late, and they fell into a second hole "Another hole." Gary finished with a face palm.

Team Rocket suddenly appeared

"Hahaha! You _fell_ for it!" James laughed

"Ugh! You guys are through! Go Bayleaf, use-" she smacked her forehead and Gary snickered "I forgot… I don't_ have_ Bayleaf…"

They ran to the hole containing Max and May instead.

"Gary, help May, I've got Max." he nodded and helped May out of the hole while Ashley grabbed a hold of the small boy and pulled him up. "You two alright?"

"Yeah, we're okay" May told her and Gary turned to the other hole to see Norman pulling his wife up.

"You guys okay?" Gary questioned

"Yes, we're fine" Norman assured before turning to Team Rocket, "Now, What makes you think you can steal anyone's pokemon! Especially my little girls new friend's pokemon!"

Jessie laughed obnoxiously "Ooh, looks like a mad dad! No matter, Go Arbok! Poison sting!"

Gary thought fast, "Go Blastoise! Intercept it! Then hydro pump!" As he battled , no one noticed Max slip away until he came back and ran to Gary, holding out the cage with Ralts

"Here you go! I got Ralts back for you!" Gary looked releived.

"Blastoise, keep it up! Thank you so much Max." he thanked and ruffled the boy's hair, chuckling when he jumped to fix it before opening the cage, "Time to get you out of here, I am so sorry Ralts… I'm so sorry"

He held the slightly crying pokemon in a hug "Shh, it's okay, I wont let anything bad happen to you, Return." She was enveloped in a red beam of light and Gary attached the ball to his belt.

Gary immediately noticed that his Blastoise was doing well against the snake on his own and smiled, Blastoise was his oldest and most responsible pokemon.

"Alright, go Wheezing! Sludge!"

"Pikachu, get in there, thunderbolt on Wheezing!"

The battle went on a little longer before a loud roar was heard, along with some laughing.

Ashley smiled crazily and looked up to the sky. And before Gary could even look up, Ashley was covered in flames. When they subsided, Ashley was slightly charred and had a straight face. That was when two Charizards landed.

"Charizard, is that really necessary _every _time you see me?" the Charizard roared happily in response before a woman jumped off the second dragon, this one with a bow. "Hey Liza! Great timing by the way. Oh, Gary knock back Team Rocket into their balloon okay?"

"You got it! Blastoise, Hydro Pump!" Team Rocket flew back into the basket of their balloon with a scream.

"Alright Charizard, high power flamethrower, now!" and with that, the Team blasted off with a yell. "Yeah! Charizard I missed you buddy!" She threw her arms around the dragon and got a squeeze in return.

"Well, that answers what pokemon you were bringing. I knew it was either Squirtle or Charizard." Gary spoke with a smirk.

Max was pointing, speechless at the fire dragon, his mouth open in disbelief.

"Y-your Charizard! HE'S SO COOL!" Charizard looked cocky at this and puffed up.

"Careful Max, you'll only feed his ego, not that it could get any bigger." Ashley teased her pokemon before turning to Liza "Thanks so much for coming all this way, do you have his pokeball?"

"Of course! Here you go!" she handed the ebony haired girl a pokeball and frowned, "I wish I could stay longer, but I have to get back to the reserve, I'll see you some other time. Bye Charizard!" and with that, she jumped on Charla and flew off.

"Bye Liza!" Ashley yelled, waving

* * *

Back at the Maple house, May, Ashley, and Gary were facing Norman, Caroline and Max, about to leave.

"I guess it's time for you three to get going, do you have everything May?" Caroline asked her daughter.

"Don't worry Mom! I have everything I need." She smiled at her mother and Max spoke up in his 'I know all' voice he tended to use.

"Well since you guys obviously know nothing about pokemon," Gary coughed and raised his eyebrows at the boy who quickly corrected himself, "Sorry Gary, not you. Well, you actually don't know much about Hoenn pokemon" Gary nodded in acceptance, "Anyway, because of that, I think I should travel with you guys!"

Ashley and May looked shocked but Gary just ruffled the kids hair, he knew that he'd been wanting to travel with them.

"Max, does know a lot about Hoenn pokemon." Norman spoke

"And it would make me feel a lot better knowing that my children are safely together" Caroline said in her dreamy voice.

"Well then, Ashley, Gary, if it's not too much trouble, could Max travel with you?" Ashley smiled

"Of course he can! Gary?"

"I don't have a problem with it." May smiled at the two of them

"Thank you guys!"

"This'll be so much fun!" Max was practically jumping.

"Girls, I have a little something to give you." Norman spoke and handed them identical cases, "These are badge cases to put all your winning gym badges in."

"Wow thanks!" they spoke in unison and giggled realizing they'd talked at the same time.

"Not a problem. And Gary, Max, I want you both to have a pokenav. With these you can send a message to another pokenav, not that you'll need that setting very much, Max, but Gary you might find a use for it. You can also find out where you are, anywhere. It's like a map/navigator" Max's was yellow in color, while Gary's was a sleek black.

"Thank you Norman."

"Yeah thanks Dad!"

"Your very welcome. Now I guess you should be on your way, the next gym is in Rustboro Cuty by the way."

"Alright thanks! Goodbye!"

"See ya mom, dad!"

"Take care Norman, you too Caroline!"

"Bye kids!"

"Good luck!"

Ashley and May turned to run after Max, who call them slowpokes and caught up to him. Only for Gary to zoom past.

"Gotta run fast to catch up with me!" He laughed as they ran after him but only sprinted faster, stopping to wait once he reached the forest edge.

And with that, they were off to Rustboro City.

**A/N Hope you liked it!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Sorry for the wait!**

**Disclaimer: I don not own pokemon, but I do own the plot. So don't go taking it!**

"Odd… I cant see a single one anywhere!" Max was quickly growing impatient, looking around the woods for any sign of a pokemon.

Right now, the group of friends were traveling through the Petalburg Woods and hadn't yet seen a single pokemon.

"Max, you didn't expect to see one every two seconds did you? It doesn't work that way, they'll come out eventually though." Ashley explained to him and he sighed disappointed.

Gary ruffled the young boy's hair "Don't worry kid, she's just as disappointed, she just doesn't want to show it." he said the last part to Ashley teasingly which she pointedly ignored "It is kind of unusual though, I was told that the Petalburg woods is filled with pokemon…"

May, who seemed to have gained a habit of trudging behind the group whined "I'm so hungry! Can't we stop to eat before looking for pokemon?"

"Sure! I'm pretty hungry too!" Ashley agreed cheerfully in her usual happy tone.

…

A few minutes later, the four were sitting on three large rocks, May and Max had their own while Ashley and Gary shared one, all the while shoving at each other playfully, trying to knock the other off. Gary, of course, ended up winning, only to be tackled to the ground. He looked up to scowl at the ebony haired girl who was currently standing on the rock, bowing to Max and May who were giggling.

"Thank you, thank you! I try" She winked at Gary who had pulled himself up and was now sitting on the rock.

"Are you finished?" he asked dryly and she pouted

"Do you have to be no fun?" she replied in the same tone, but all the while sat down,

"Well anyway, where's the food? I'm so hungry I could eat a Tauros!" May asked, and everyone looked to Ashley, assuming she was responsible enough to remember the food.

They assumed wrong.

"What? Why are you staring at me? Who brought the food, I'm starving here!" May and Max had looks of horror on their faces while Gary looked at her for a moment before face palming.

"Ashley, you were supposed to get the food! No one else! Luckily I was smart enough to at least bring a bottle of water." Gary pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to Max who took a gulp and handed it to May.

Ashley's eyes widened, "Oops… I'm just so used to Brock bringing and cooking food I guess I just assumed someone else was doing that… Like you Gary! You're the one that traveled alone, so you must've cooked for yourself!"

"You're right, I did. But you were the one we gave the job to so don't go blaming me!"

"Well you should have known that something like this was going to happen!"

"You're right, I should have! I am _so_ sorry for thinking you could be responsible and remember something important! I wont do it again!

Max and May were looking back and forth between the rivals, walking backwards a little as the yelling got louder.

"Well if you think I'm so irresponsible, why did you agree to come with me anyway!?"

"So you wouldn't kill yourself from all the STUPID decisions you make! Trust me Ashley, you get into a lot of situations where someone has to end up saving your life!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he wanted desperately to take them back. The words brought painful memories into both of their minds. A broken look made itself at home in Gary's eyes and his shoulders slumped a little, he opened his mouth to take back the hurtful words, but a tear had already slipped down her cheek, and a choked sob had already escaped her lips. In a matter of a second, a flash of yellow fur, and a flash of black hair, she was gone, running of into the woods.

"Ashley, wait!" but she was already gone. He gripped his hair tightly before swiftly turning and punching the nearest tree hard enough to splinter it. "ARGH!" his knuckled were bleeding slightly but he didn't seem to notice.

"Gary…" May spoke up quietly and his head shot up, he had forgotten that the two were standing there in the midst of all the yelling, he felt guilty when he noticed that the two looked slightly frightened, "Wh- what was that all about?"

The brunette ran a hand through his spiky hair and sighed, "I'm sorry you guys had to see that… I can't really tell you what it was about though, not until she's ready to tell you too. All I can say is that I brought up really bad memories for the both of us… now we need to find her before she gets into any trouble."

They wordlessly followed as the green eyed teenager led the way.

…

Ashley ran blindly through the forest, tears stinging her eyes and sobs wracking her small frame. She stumbled slightly before tripping over a tree root and falling to the mossy ground.

As she fell, the yellow mouse jumped off her shoulder, before climbing on her lap and nuzzling her face as she sat herself against a tree, trying to comfort her.

"Oh, Pikachu! He's right! It's all my fault that it happened! If I hadn't been so stupid to beg to go along-" a sob cut off her sentence and tears poured out of her eyes. The Pikachu looked at her in sorrow, he always seemed to know exactly what was going on.

"And if that had never happened then _he_ never would have left us! Why did he have to go Pikachu? Why?! Was I just not good enough? Was he to ashamed to even look at me anymore? Why did he even save me if he hated me for what happened? Why is everything all my fault!? I always mess everything up!" she ducked her head and held tightly to the mouse as if he were a teddy bear and cried into his fur. Suddenly, the mouse looked angry, and sparks flew from his cheeks.

"Ashley… it was never your fault. I can't give you and answer to why he left but I do know he's the stupidest man alive for doing it. You didn't deserve that, I promise you! And you don't mess everything up. What happened that day was _NOT_ your fault and it never will be. You can't keep putting the blame on yourself, it's painful for me to see."

Gary was now sitting on the ground, he had pulled her into his lap and rocked back and forth as she slowly stopped crying.

She sat up and wiped her eyes, looking down, "Thanks" she mumbled and smiled weakly

"Always." the smile suddenly reached her eyes and she turned to the two siblings who were watching silently.

May's eyes had turned misty seeing her new friend in pain, and Max had a look that children got when they saw their parents fighting.

"I am so sorry you guys had to see that. Right now, I'm not really ready to tell you my reasons… but I promise that I will when I am." her friends smiled at her, agreeing and Max's face lit up.

"I just remembered something!" the small boy rummaged through his bag and pulled out a candy wrapper. May's eyes instantly lit up.

"You have a chocolate bar!? Give us some!" everyone was soon disappointed when he only pulled out one piece of chocolate, "There's only one?! Oh no!"

While they debated on how to split it a small bird pokemon swooped down and snatched the chocolate away.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing with that?!" May screamed at it and Ashley giggled at her friend in amusement.

"That was a Taillow! I saw a pokemon!" Max was so excited he was almost jumping.

"Well, instead of just standing here, why don't we follow it?" Gary suggested and they ran after it.

…

They followed the red and blue bird into a small clearing to see it land on a tree and devour the chocolate.

They all gaped at it. And then May burst into tears

"B-but I wanted that chocolate!" her friends sweat dropped at her antics before Pikachu realized something.

"Pika! Pika pi!"

"What is it buddy- YES!" she turned to see her mouse pointing to the trees, which just so happened to be full of fruit. "Apples! Pikachu knock some down for us!"

The electric mouse sent a thunderbolt to the trees, knocking down some apples, only for a whole flock of Taillow to fly out of the trees, eat the fruit, and stare at the group in hostility.

"Uh oh… I _think_ they might be angry." Ashley's friends looked at her in disbelief.

"Oh, really? I had _no idea_!" Gary snapped sarcastically

"You are just an angry person today aren't you." Ashley stated dryly and turned to her yellow companion "Pikachu, thunderbolt!"

The mouse smirked and shot a bolt of lightning at the flock, but made sure that it also hit Gary. All the pokemon fell to the ground seemingly unconscious . Gary scowled at the mouse, a funny sight, as his hair stood on end from the zap.

"Yeah, I probably deserved that." Gary said blandly, accepting the punishment the mouse had given him for upsetting his trainer.

Pikachu found the punishment to be very amusing and was rolling around laughing.

"Pika-ha-ha!" the laughter soon stopped though and Pikachu shot up and got into a fighting stance, sparks being released from the pouches on his cheeks as her growled threateningly.

Everyone turned in shock to see the flock of taillow getting up.

"But that should have knocked them out!" Gary and Max yelled in unison

"We'll think about that later! Pikachu thunderbolt em' again!"

The mouse sent a lightning bolt at the flock again, but they only brushed it off, "Hm… those hungry little buggers are pretty tough!" Ashley said in respect

Suddenly, one of them took a dive towards Pikachu, it was quickly zapped and flew back to the flock, who were still hovering menacingly.

"You know I bet that one is the leader…" Max said thoughtfully, revering to the one that had just made the dive.

"And with that chocolate on it's beak, that's the one that stole our chocolate!" May exclaimed

The taillow dived at Pikachu again, and the mouse threw a thunderbolt, knocking it back for a second before it broke free on it's own, looking angrier than ever.

"No way! How'd it do that?!" All of them looked shocked, how had a flying type escape one of Pikachu's thunderbolts and still be able to battle? "Well, taillow. I like you! You're a tough one!"

"Taillow!" the red and blue bird looked proud at the praise.

Then the flock started to close in on them. Gary was the first to see it coming and, faster than anyone could blink, he had released Blastoise and tackled Ashley to the ground covering her and Pikachu.

"Blastoise cover May and Max, NOW!" the Tortoise moved with surprising speed as it cover the siblings just before the flock dive bombed.

Before they could hit though, a voice sounded

"Foretress, explosion!" and it did.

BOOM!

Ashley opened her eyes, she had closed them when the taillow had dived, and smiled widely at what she saw.

"BROCK!"

…

Brock had led them out of the forest to a river. "We'll be safer out here."

"Thank you Brock! You really saved our butts in there!" Ashley was grinning happily at seeing her friend again

"Ah it was nothing" Brock rubbed the back of his head at the praise

"Always the humble one" Ashley smirked, "Anyways, this is May and Max! of course you already know Gary."

"Nice to meet you!"

"You too!" the siblings said in unison, smiling at the older teen.

"So Ashley, why are you traveling with Gary?" Ashley immediately got defensive. When he asked the question she saw the look in his eyes, it was the same look Misty gave her when she had found out that Ashley was traveling with Gary. Ashley didn't like the look one bit.

"What, a girl can't be friends with her rival? She glared at him and he smirked a little

"Oh no, of course you can!" he still had the look in his eyes, Ashley noted, and they continued to have a stare down.

As he had that smirk, Ashley knew then exactly what had happened, because Misty would never disregard a promise.

"You little eavesdropper, you! That was a private conversation!" She pointed an accusatory finger at him but he didn't back down.

"It is not my fault that you had that conversation in the same room as me! If you really didn't want me to know, then you should have left the room or made sure I was asleep instead of assuming! Either way, you should know that I would have found out eventually." he finished with his 'I know all' smirk and she scowled.

"Still… But Brock, I swear on Pikachu's life that if you so much as breathe one word of what you heard, you _**will**_ regret it!" Ashley looked dangerous as she jabbed her finger to Brocks chest. Even though she had to look up to look him in the eye, the 18 year old still looked frightened.

"My lips are sealed!"

"Ahem…" the two friends just realized they weren't alone as May coughed. She, Max and Gary looked toughly confused as to what the two friends had been arguing about.

"I have to admit, I'm interested in whatever secret could make you swear on your pokemon's life." Gary deadpanned. Ashley choked and Brock chuckled, stopping abruptly at the glare he got.

"Well deal with it. Because you will never find out if I can help it! And I can." Gary pouted but she had already turned back to Brock. "So does this mean we'll be traveling together again?! I can't think of another reason for you to come out to Hoenn!"

"Yeah, I was hoping we could travel together again" Ashley squealed girlishly and surged forward, hugging Brock tightly

"YAY!"

…

After talking for a while, Brock decided that it would be a good time to eat and started to make some stew, also pulling out some pokemon food and releasing Foretress from his pokeball.

Ashley let out Charizard (Brock raised an eyebrow but didn't question it) and May let out her Torchic.

Gary also let out Blastoise, Umbreon and Ralts before bottle feeding the baby Psychic type.

"How old is she?" Brock asked curiously, gesturing to the child like form in the brunettes arms.

"About a week I think, I'm not entirely sure though, we found her being attacked by a pack of Mightyena. Why?"

"She'll probably be able to eat solids in about two or three weeks then. Has she started using telepathy yet?" Gary looked slightly surprised

"Ralts' can use telepathy?"

"Yeah, it's a hidden ability, I'm sure she'll start to use it once she get's slightly older and more comfortable around everyone."

"That's awesome! She could translate for other pokemon too! Haha, Gramps would have a field day."

"Anyway, the stew is just about ready now!" he said while stirring.

"Pika!" Pikachu jumped onto a large rock, looking at something in the distance, Ashley gasped at what she saw.

"No way! It's that same Taillow!" the bird swooped down and landed on a rock opposite to Pikachu.

"I wonder what it wants…" May said thoughtfully.

Ashley spoke up with a smirk "I already know. He wants to battle to see who the better pokemon is."

"Taillow!" he squawked in agreement and flew over the river.

"Alright Pikachu, lets go!"

The yellow mouse ran and jumped on a rock protruding from the water and waited for a command.

"Quick attack!" surprising everyone, the taillow was able to dodge the attack easily and swooped back down

"Thunderbolt!" this time, the attack hit causing taillow to fall, but he flew back into the air just before hitting the water, again, flying towards the yellow mouse. "Ha! I love this little guy! He just doesn't quit!" she got a thoughtful look before smiling widely, "I'm gonna catch him!"

Pikachu jumped to avoid the Taillow's attack but the flying type grabbed his tail in his beak, flying upwards. Pikachu panicked and zapped the bird, but he still didn't let go, flying higher. The small bird stopped mid-air and launched Pikachu towards the water.

When he resurface, Taillow was diving down. He dipped one wing into the water and sped toward the mouse.

"Alright then, finish it with Thunder!" Pikachu surrounded himself with a large thunderbolt and ran across the water towards the fast approaching flying type. When the two collided, a wall of water flew up. When it cleared, both pokemon were standing on rocks, breathing heavily. Ashley took this as her chance.

"Go, Pokeball!" the bird was surrounded in a beam of light and the pokeball landed on a rock, wiggled a few times, then finally clicked and blinked red.

…

Ashley released her new pokemon and he started breathing heavily, she looked at him in sympathy

"Aw buddy, you really exhausted yourself…"

Brock leaned down and sprayed him with a bit of potion, then the bird started to calm down "There, a bit of that and some rest and you'll be good as new!"

Ashley leaned down to look at her new friend, wiping away the chocolate on his beak with the handkerchief Misty had given her. "Hi Taillow, I'm Ashley! Would you like to travel with us?"

"Taillow!" he squawked happily and Ashley grinned

"That's great! Hop on!" she offered her arm and he flew up to land on her shoulder, Pikachu followed suit. "Alright! I caught a Taillow!" she did her signature pose of a piece sign and a wink before laughing happily at the looks on her friends faces.

"So, are we gonna eat or what?"

**A/N I am sooooooo sorry for the wait! I started high school and everything has been a bit crazy! I hope you liked the chapter!**

**Review!**


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning started off with two loud yells, and Brock, May, and Max shot up looking for the source of the offending noise.

They quickly found it as they looked towards Ashley and Gary, who were quickly scrambling away from each other and the three started to laugh uncontrollably as they understood the problem.

Ashley glared at them icily "And just _what_ are you laughing at?" they normally would have shut up, but they just couldn't stop, Ashley started to get suspicious. "What did you do." she ordered them to tell her in a calm, collected voice, it was then that they shut up.

May and Max pushed Brock forward and he glared at them "He did it!" Ashley turned her full focus on a nervous looking Brock.

"Well, Ash, you two fell asleep talking, so of course you were near each other. So I simply moved you closer and put your arms around each other. Not my fault you're such a heavy sleeper." he smirked at her and she gave him a death stare and hit him over the head before turning around to look at Gary, wondering why he'd been so quiet.

He was in the same position he was before, wide eyed and in shock.

Ashley rolled her eyes to hide the slight pain in them. _'is it really that bad to wake up next to me?'_ she looked at Pikachu and nodded to him. Getting the message, he sent a thundershock at the brunette, literally shocking him out of his stupor.

"Hurry up and get ready Gary. I want to eat and get moving." she stated in a clipped tone before grabbing her clothes and shoving past him and into the forest to go change.

Gary looked at Brock in confusion "What did I do…?"

Brock just chuckled and walked past him, talking to him over his shoulder "You're smart Gary, I'm sure you'll understand at some point! Most likely not today, but at some point." and he walked off to make breakfast.

…

The group was walking along with Ashley and Brock in the front, whispering to each other, May and Max in the middle arguing over something or another and Gary was in the back with Blastoise and Umbreon flanking him and Ralts in his arms, throwing her in the air and catching her.

Charizard and Taillow were flying above them while Pikachu, Torchic, and Forretress were next to their respective trainers.

Up in the front of the group, Brock decided to ask Ashley what he'd been wanting to know since he'd joined up with the group.

"So, are you ever going to tell him Ash?" she got quiet and looked up at him with a hint of sadness

"No Brock, I'm not. What's the use of telling him when I know he doesn't feel the same? I'll just save myself the heartbreak and get over him, okay? I learned not to take chances like that from watching you get your heart broken so many times…"

"Oh Ashley, I've only gotten my heart broken a couple times, and some of them, you didn't see. All those pretty girls were just that, pretty girls. It doesn't mean you should just throw your heart around, but I do mean that sometimes you just have to take chances."

"But… what if I ruin this friendship with him? I only just got him back, I can't just let him leave again Brock! You don't know how that felt… everyone I loved except my mom seemed to just leave me, I had no friends until I met Misty because everyone in Pallet knew that everyone I cared about seemed to get hurt, so they steered clear. Ever since the incident I thought he hated me, especially on our journey since he declared me his rival… you know I honestly don't know when he stopped being mean, or why… I guess it was gradual but still. He had no reason to stop." she stated thoughtfully "I'll ask him later."

Brock looked sadly at his friend, he knew all the things she'd gone through and it hurt him to see her so sad, he wasn't a violent person, but he would personally punch anyone in the face that decided to hurt her, she was one of his best friends and like a little sister to him after all, he had to protect her.

"Ashley, you don't need to tell him now if you don't want to, but I don't want you to hold it all in like this… just please tell him when you're ready okay?"

"Alright Brock, I will. But for now I'm just gonna try and get over him."

The tall, spiky haired brunette nodded and they fell into a comfortable silence.

…

It was around 2 pm when Ashley got seriously bored. And a bored Ashley is never a good thing.

"Guys" she whined "I'm _bored_!" and then promptly plopped on the ground.

They all looked at her incredulously.

"What?" she questioned defensively, and then her eyes lit up in excitement "Oooh! I know what to do!"

She then whistled loudly.

"What was that supposed to do? Pop our ear drums?" Gary asked dryly, but she just held up a finger and a second later, Charizard landed in front of them.

"Hey buddy!" she ran over to him and motioned for him to put his head down and then whispered something in his ear. The dragon like pokemon grinned, which was quite frightening actually, and leaned down.

She then climbed onto his back and took to the air.

"Ashley! You're gonna get hurt!" Gary screamed at her but she just laughed and made Charizard do a flip. She said something that they couldn't hear and the dragon climbed higher into the sky. They saw her stand up, say something else and jump off the Charizard's back, laughing as she fell through the air

Brock had a small smile, May was covering her eyes, Max was laughing and talking about how cool it was, and Gary, well Gary was yelling at Ashley.

As Ashley got closer, Charizard swooped down and she landed skillfully onto his back, and Gary realized that she must have done this before, probably a lot by the way that Brock looked completely at ease with this.

The trainer and pokemon were now just flying, and Ashley had a soft smile on her face, like nothing could ever hurt her. Gary, seeing this, smiled at the girl and motioned for everyone to continue on their way, Ashley would be fine up there.

…...

It was nightfall and all the pokemon were in their pokeballs, with the exception of Pikachu of course, and everyone was sleeping.

Everyone except Ashley.

_Why… why did he change? Why is he my friend… I need to know…._

"Gary… are you awake?" she asked, shaking him

"Well I am now." he said sleepily and yawned, turning to face her "Why, what's up?"

She looked at him nervously, "Well, I couldn't sleep… my mind wont shut up."

Gary chuckled lightly "Is that new? What will it not shut up about?"

She mock glared at him before turning serious. "Well, I've been wondering all day… Why are we friends? I thought our friendship died years ago, especially when you decided to be my rival, and did all those mean things… so what changed? Why do you even want to be my friend after what happened? I wouldn't blame you…." she asked distressed

Gary went quiet and got a thoughtful expression, and then looked at her seriously. " Ashley, I've told you time and time again that it was never your fault that the incident happened. So please do not ever believe that because it wasn't, I promise. As for the reason of why we're friends… well I don't know when it happened, but I realized that I needed you back Ashley, but I was too stubborn to admit it, so I gradually got nicer to you, and started bringing back our friendship…. Ashley, _you_ are the reason. You're the reason because I couldn't take being your enemy, that was too painful. More painful than living with the fact that I had just left you when we both needed each other and I realized that even if you didn't still need me, I still needed you, I haven't ever really gotten over what happened, but as long as I have you I can cope with it better. I missed this Ashy, being close to you, you being my best friend… I know I'm probably not your best friend, that title belongs to Misty or Brock, and I don't deserve it for abandoning you like that, but I'm just happy to be with you again."

"Oh Gary… I missed this too. And you are my best friend, you're tied with Brock and Mist" she hugged him tightly then giggled

"What? What are you laughing at?" Gary asked incredulously

"We're acting so cliché!" she laughed out and Gary chuckled

"Yeah, I guess we are. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to bed."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." she rubbed her eyes and yawned, stretching out before curing up in her sleeping bag. "Goodnight Garebear."

"Goodnight Ashykinz."

**A/N Wow it's been a while! Sorry to all my faithful readers! Scholl likes to get in my way a lot but it's break now! So this was a filler chapter and I feel bad about the shortness but the next chapter will be long I promise! SPOILER ALERT but Ashley will also be getting a new pokemon ;)**


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